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Author: 


Coman,  Katharine 


Title: 


The  industrial  history  of 
the  United  States 

Place: 

New  York 

Date: 

1914 


MASTER    NEGATIVE   # 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DIVISION 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC  MICROFORM  TARGET 


ORIGINAL  MATERIAL  AS  FILMED  -    EXISTING  BIBLIOGRAPHIC  RECORD 


D997.3 
C734 


Coman,  Katharine,  1857-1915. 

The  industrial  history  of  the  United  States.  New  and 
rev.  ed.  By  Katharine  Coman  ...  New  York,  The  Mac- 
mi  llan  company,  iOlO;   19 14  • 

xyi  p.,  1 1.,  401  p.    front.,  illus.,  plates,  maps.    19i  cm. 
Bibliography :  p.  428-451. 


HC103.C7    1910 


iSOyl] 


1.  U.  S.— Indus.— Hist.    2^.  S.— Econ.  condlt       i.  Title. 

^^^  10—21778 

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Trui^k,  I'^i'i. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL    HISTORY 

OF  THE 

UNITED   STATES 


^^r^yi^^ 


THE  iMACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    B(  )STON  •    CHICAGO 
SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN   &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  ■  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  (  ()    OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


The  Industrial  History 


OF  THE 


United  States 


NEW   AND    REVISED   EDITION 


BY 


KATHARINE   COMAN.   Ph.B. 

PROFESSOR    OF    ECONOMICS     AND     SOCIOLOGY    IN 
WELLESLEY   COLLEGE 


THE-  MACMaLAN   COMPANY 

Ail  rights  reserved 


hItentional  second  exposure 


The  Industrial  History 


OF  THE 


United  States 


NEW   AND    REVISED   EDITION 


BY 


KATHARINE   COMAN,   Ph.B. 

PROFESSOK     OF    ECONOMICS    AND     SOCK  »L(JC;Y    IN 
WELLESLEY   COLLEGE 


THE   MACMa.LAN   COMPANY 
'  '  «       -    1914 


A/i  rights  reserved 


Jk.AJEL 


CD 


CO 


COPVKIGHT,   1905,   19IO, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  September,  1905.     Reprinted 
February,  1906;    September,  1907;  August,  1908;    September,  1909. 

New  and  revised  edition  September,  1910;  July,  1911;  August.  1912; 
March,  1913  ;  January,  19x4. 


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PREFACE 

The  history  of  the  United  States,  more  than  that  of 
any  Old  World  country,  is  the  record  of  physical  achieve- 
ment. The  exploitation  of  virgin  territory  by  a  race  of 
extraordinary  intelligence,  resource,  and  energy  is  the 
essential  theme  of  our  national  history.  Political  events 
and  social  changes  are  conditioned  on  industrial  evolu- 
tion, and  the  story  of  America  can  be  comprehended  only 
in  the  light  of  her  material  aspirations  and  attainments. 
The  advance  of  agriculture  from  the  pioneer  farm  to  the 
bonanza  ranch,  the  expansion  of  manufactures  consequent 
on  the  substitution  of  machinery  and  factory  organization 
for  the  domestic  handicrafts,  the  service  rendered  to  com- 
merce by  steam,  the  telegraph,  electricity,  —  these  are  the 
really  potent  factors  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 
The  transformation  of  industrial  organization  from  inden- 
tured service  to  the  trade  union,  from  the  self-employed 
artisan  to  the  trust,  from  wild-cat  banking  to  the  national 
bank  system,  has  more  significance  than  the  ups  and 
downs  of  parties  or  the  result  of  a  presidential  election. 

Political  revolutions  and  military  undertakings  cannot 
be  ignored  by  the  student  of  economic  hStory.  War  must 
be  treated  not  as  picturesque  by-play  merely,  but  as  a 
disastrous  interruption  of  industrial  progress.  The  financ- 
ing of  a  war  often  introduces  a  disturbing  factor  into  the 
currency  system,  emergency  taxes  retard  or  promote  busi- 
ness interests  and  furnish  opportunity  for  special  legisla- 
tion, the  enlistment  and  disbanding  of  an  army  involve 
sudden  alterations  in  the  labor  supply,  while  army  life  has 
a  demoralizing  influence  on  business  habits.  Social  in- 
stitutions  and   their  slow  transformations   offer   a   most 


\ 


>i 


VI 


Preface 


interesting  accompaniment  to  the  study  of  economic  evo- 
lution, but  they  may  fairly  be  considered  as  effect  rather 
than  cause  of  economic  tendencies. 

The  record  of  industrial  progress  may  be  rendered  no 
less  intelligible   and  interesting  to   the  average   student 
than  the  development  of  political  forms.    Business  methods 
are  more  familiar  than  military  tactics,  and  a  mechanical 
invention  is  more  readily  comprehended  than  a  constitu- 
tional revision.     Elaborate  treatises  have  been  written  on 
various  phases  of  our  economic  history.     It  is  the  aim 
of  this  book  to  bring  the  essential  elements  of  that  history 
within  the  grasp  of  the  average  reader.     The  complicated 
story  has   been  told  in  the  briefest  possible  fashion,  but 
marginal  references  will  enable   the  student  to  go  into 
detail  as  fully  as  may  be  desired.     Contemporary  prob- 
lems are  treated  in  mere   outline.      The  data   essential 
to  the  study  of  each  have  been  set  forth  with  no  expres- 
sion of  opinion,  the  best  authorities,  pro  and  con,  being 
noted  in  the  margin.     A  final  chapter  on  the  conservation 
of  our  national  resources  has  been  added  to  this  edition 
in  the  hope  of  making  evident  the  transcendent  importance 
of  the  interests  involved.     Here,  again,  so  brief  a  treat- 
ment can  do  hardly  more  than  suggest  salient  facts,  leav- 
ing the  student  to  follow  the  line  of  his  special  concern. 
For  the   assistance   of  teachers,  suggestions  for  supple- 
mentary reading  and  for  class  discussion  are  given  in  an 
appendix. 


FAGB 
I-2I 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  LAND  AND    THE  PEOPLE     . 

The  Discovery  of  the  New  World  :  the  Eastward  Route ; 
the  Westward  Route  ;  Industrial  Resources  of  America ;  the 
Territory  of  the  United  States i 

The  Peopling  of  North  America  :   The  Aborigines ;   Spain ; 
France;  Great  Britain  ;   Holland;  the  Final  Victory  of^the    " 
English ■     .        7 

CHAPTER   II 

THE  BUSINESS  ASPECTS   OF  COLONIZATION        22-47 

The  Financing  of  the  Colonies  :  the  Chartered  Companies ; 

Associations  of  Adventurers  ;   Proprietary  Grants  .        .      23 

Land  Tenure 32 

The  Colonists  .        .        . 38 

The  Labor  Supply  :  Indentured  Servants ;  African  Slaves        .  41 

The  Scarcity  of  Money 46 

CHAFFER  III 

INDUS  TIBIAL    DEVELOPMENT     UNDER    BRITISH 

CONTROL 48-88 

Agriculture:  the  New  England  Colonies;  New  York;  the 
Middle  Colonies  ;  the  Southern  Colonies  ;  Fostering  Legis- 
lation     ^3 

Manufactures:  Qoth  Manufacture;  Restrictive  Legislation; 
Leather    Manufactures ;     Iron    Manufactures ;     Restrictive 

Legislation 63 

vii 


VUl 


Contents 


FAGl 


Commerce:  Wagon  Roads;  the  Coastwise  Trade;  the  West 
India  Trade  ;  the  Slave  Trade ;  the  Transatlantic  Trade  ; 
Restrictive  Legislation ;  the  Navigation  Acts ;  Colonial 
Shipping ;  the  Enumerated  Articles ;  Smuggling ;  the  Mo- 
lasses Act 


73 


Credit  Money 85 


>     CHAFrER  IV 

INDUSTRIAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION    89-131 

Causes  :  the  Imperial  Regime  ;  the  Sugar  Act ;  the  Stamp  Act ; 
Nonintercourse ;  the  Repeal  ;  Attempt  to  vindicate  Impe- 
rial Authority ;  Renewal  of  Nonintercourse  ;  the  Tea  Tax  j 
the  Boycott  Complete  ;   Declaration  of  Independence  .         .       89 

Industrial  Consequences:  National  Bankruptcy ;  Commercial 
Gains  and  Losses ;  Development  of  Manufactures ;  the  Farm- 
er's Opportunity ;  the  Antislavery  Movement        .         .         .     106 

The  Conquest  of  the  Ohio  Valley  :  The  Backwoods  Settle- 
ments; Indian  Wars;  Peace  and  Prosperity         .        .        .133 


CHAPTER  V 

NATIONAL  BEGINNINGS 132-174 

Formative  Legislation  :  The  Federal  Constitution  \  Legisla- 
tion in  Behalf  of  Shipping  ;  Commercial  Treaties  ;  Legisla- 
tion in  Behalf  of  Manufactures;  Hamilton's  Report  on 
Manufactures  ;  the  Patent  Law  ;  Regulation  of  the  Currency     132 

The  Westward  Movement:  the  Ordinance  of  1787  ;  South  of 
the  Ohio  ;  the  Sale  of  Public  Lands  ;  Need  of  Transportation 
Facilities;  the  Cumberland  Road;  Gallatin's  Plan;  the 
Louisiana  Purchase •        •        •     *S" 

CHAPTER  VI 

INDUSTRIAL    CONSEQUENCES   OF   THE   tVAR   OF 

i8i2 175-206 

Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Neutral  Trade  :  American 
Grievances ;  the  War  ;  the  Reciprocity  Treaties ;  the  Fish- 
cries     ^75 


i, 

I- 


Contents 


IX 


PAGE 

Development  of  Manufactures  :  Cotton ;  Woolen  ;  Iron ; 
the  Effects  of  Peace  ;  the  Tariff  Act  of  1816  ;  Clash  of  Sec- 
tional Interests;  the  Tariff  Acts  of  1824,  1828,  1832,  1833  .     184 

Financial  Difficulties  :  the  Second  National  Bank  ;  the  Crisis 

of  1819 198 

Land  Speculation  :  The  Emigrants 203 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE   EPOCH   OF  EXPANSION  AND    THE    CRISIS 

OF  1837  .        .        .        '    ,    •        ....     207-231 

Speculative  Investment  :  Manufactures  ;  Agriculture  ;  Cot- 
ton and  Slavery  ;  Free  Labor  and  Enterprise  ;  Internal 
Commerce     .         .        .         ,         .  , 207 

Internal  Improvements  :  Canals ;  Railroads ;  Commercial 
Development ;  the  Coastwise  Trade ;  Commerce  on  the 
Great  Lakes 216 

Commercial  Development 225 

Speculation  and  the  Crisis  :  Failure  to  recharter  the  National 

Bank;  Debasement  of  the  Coinage  ;  Crisis  of  1837     •        •     227 

CHAPTER  VIII 

TERRITORIAL   EXPANSION  AND    THE  REVENUE 

TARIFFS 232-268 

Growth  in  Wealth  and  Population 232 

Industrial  Backwardness  of  the  South  :  Agriculture  ; 
Manufactures  ;   Railroads  ;   Commerce         .... 

Territorial  Expansion  :  Texas  ;  California ;  Utah  ;  Oregon  . 

Through  Routes  to  the  West  :  Financing  of  the  Roads ; 
Electric  Telegraph  ;   Express  Companies      .... 

Influence  of  Revenue  Tariffs  :  Walker  Tariff ;  Tariff  of 
1857 ;  Infant  Industries  come  of  Age  ;  Notable  Inventions; 
Agricultural  Machinery 254 

Development  of  Commerce  :  Ship-building  ;  Subsidy  Policy  .    262 
The  Panic  of  1857 266 


236 

243 

248 


Contents 


CHAPTER  IX 


PAGB 


THE   CIVIL    WAR;    ECONOMIC  CAUSES  AND  RE- 
SULTS            .     269-312 

Slavery  versus  Free  Labor  :  Trend  of  Southern  0])inion  ; 
Proslavery  Movement ;  Trend  of  Opinion  in  the  North  ;  the 
Humanitarian  Movement ;  Organization  of  Labor  ;  Socialist 
Enthusiasm  ;  Slavery  and  the  Territories ;  the  Republican 
Party 269 

Cost  of  the  War  :  Confederate  Finances ;  Federal  Finances  .     279 

Industrial  Transformation  :  Redemption  of  the  Greenbacks; 
Revival  of  Protective  Tariffs  ;  Material  Prosperity  ;  Decline 
of  our  Merchant  Marine ;  Homestead  Act  ;  Transconti- 
nental Railways  ;  Crisis  of  1873  ;  Labor  Movement .  Farm- 
ers' Movement       ......•••     285 

Industrial    Transformation    of    the    South:   the  Labor 

Problem 3P1 


CHAPTER  X 


CONTEMPORARY  PROBLEMS 3 » 3-374 

The  Protective  Policy:  Crisis  of  1884;  McKinleyAct;  Wil- 
son-Gorman Act ;   Dingley  Act ;   Payne-Aldrich  Act    .         .     313 

Expansion    of    Commerce  :     Decline    of   Shipping ;     Subsidy 

Policy  ;  International  Mercantile  Marine  Company      .         .     327 

Currency  Problems:  Demonetization  of  Silver;  the  Gold 
Standard;  Financial  Crisis  of  1893;  Revision  of  the  Na- 
tional  Bank  System  ;  Crisis  of  1907  ;   Reform  Propositions  .     335 

Governmental  Control  of  Railroads:  Railway  Combina- 
tions ;   Rate  Regulation 347 

Business  Monopolies:  Anti-trust  Legislation    ....     354 

The  Organization  of  Labor  :  Knights  of  Labor ;  American 
Federation  of  Labor  ;  Strike  Statistics  ;  Criticism  of  Trade 
Union  Methods  ;   Employers'  Associations    ....     3^^ 

Immigration:  Restrictive  Legislation 368 


Contents 


zi 


CHAPTER  XI 

PAGE 

CONSERVATION 375-413 

Exploitation  of  Natural  Resources:  Destruction  of  Game 
and  Fur-bearing  Animals  ;  Exhaustion  of  Forests  ;  Deple- 
tion of  Pasturage  ;  Exhaustion  of  the  Soil ;  Exhaustion  of 
Mineral  Resources  ;  Waste  of  Human  Life ;  Utilization  of 
Wastes  in  Manufacture 375 

Preventive  Legislation  :   Bureau  of  Mines ;    Pure  Food  and 

Drug  Law 389 

Reclamation  :  Inland  Waterways  Movement ;  Achievements 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  ;  the  Forestry  Service ; 
Reclamation  of  Agricultural  Land  ;  Irrigation  of  Arid  Lands; 
Drainage  of  Swamp  Lands  ;  Dry  Farming  ....     393 

The  Conservation  Movement:  Conservationof  Water  Power; 

Conservation  Challenged 407 


f 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


Physiographic  Map  of  the  United  States.    Tarr  and  McMurry, 

Coipplete  Geography Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Old  and  New  Trade  Routes  to  the  Orient 3 

Routes  of  the  Explorers To  face        8 

French  Settlements  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.     Adapted  from 

Semple,  American  History II 

European  Claims  in  North  America l^ 

The  Original  Grants To  face      28 

Map  of  the  Dedham  Divident.     Records  of  the  Dedham  Histori- 
cal Society 34 

Fishing  Banks  off  the  North  Atlantic  Coast.     Massachusetts  State 

Census,  1885 5* 

Jamestown  in  1622.  Tyler,  Cradle  of  the  Republic  ...  55 
Tobacco  Culture.  The  Southern  Workman  .  .  To  face  56 
Rice  Culture  in  South  Carolina.     Photographs  furnished  by  Reid 

Whitford,  Esq To  face      60 

Balance  of  Trade  between  the  American  Colonies  and  Great 

Britain,  1697-1775.     Based  on  Hazard's  Statistical  Table     .      64 

Colonial  Roads 7S 

Colonial  Exports,  Annual  Average,  1 763-1 773.     Based  on  Statis- 
tics in  American  Husbandry 80 

Population  of  the  Colonies,  1754  and  1775 80 

Distribution  of  English  Population  in  America,  1774.     Adapted 

from  Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West 9' 

Trade  between  the  American  Colonies  and  Great  Britain,  1 764- 

1776.     Based  on  Hazard's  Statistical  Tables  .         .         .101 

Continental  Currency,  Emissions  and  Depreciation.     Based  on 
Schucker,  Revolutionary  Finances,  and  Webster,  Political 

Essays 112 

Spinning  Wheels  still  in  Use  in  the  Kentucky  Mountains  To  face     117 
Bryant's  Station.     Plan  drawn  by  George  Rogers  Clark.     Repro- 
duction furnished  by  Colonel  R.  T.  Durrett  .         .      To  face     126 
Actual  Occupation  and  Treaty  Boundaries,  1783.     Adapted  from 

Roosevelt,  Winning  of  the  West 129 

•  •• 


i 


XIV 


List  of  Illustrations 


PAGB 


Grinding  corn  with  Swee,  Mi«  in  the   Kentucky  MonntJ.     ^^ 

Distribution  of  Population  in  .790.    Statistical  Atlas.    United     ^^^ 

SUtes  Cens^.  .900       .        •        •    ^^^^  ^^^;^^  ^^^^^^_  .g^     .^^ 

Early  Steamboats.    F"^j'^  ^°^  ;„  „,,  ;„  jhe  Kentucky 

Qeaning  Cotton  with  Roller  Gin,  stm  in  u  ^^^^_^     ^^^ 

Mountains     .         •        •         "        j       /^  Hundred  Years     .     I5« 
Whitney's  Cotton  Gin.     H^.  ^^^  ,,,,^   Massachusetts 

Stocking   Loom  stiU   m   i  se  s  To  face     152 

•      QUt^r's  Mill      White,   Memoir  of  Samuel 
Spinning  Room  m  Slaters   Mill.  ^         ^         ^  ^^^ 

Slater .        .     159 

State  Claims  to  Western  Lands    .        .        •        •        *  161 

Map  of  the  Ohio  Lands.     Western  Reserve  T  acts      . 

KoLs  and  Trails  into  the  West.      Imlay,  Description  of  the     ^^^ 

Western  Territory  .         •    ^^;^^/i,,,a;rs  of  American 

An  Ohio  River  Flat  Boat.     Hart,  sou         ^        ^         ^      ^^^^^^     ^^^ 

History  .•••.*''  .173 

Explorations  in  the  Louisiana  Territory        .        •        •       ^^^^^^     ^^^ 

Primitive  Lumbering    .         .         *         "        •*,  c   Wood       To  1  nee     194 
Georgia  Sugar  Mill.     Photographs  by  David  S.  Wood       lo  94 

Breaking  Flax  in  the  KentucUy  M-tain.  •     ^        ^J^ 

Distribution  of  Population  in  1830.     Statistical  ^     ^^ 

-r^ero^rgarand   its    nep;naen-c.e.-  Ol^stedJ^Je     ^^^ 
Xravr".""- Boat.  Erie  canal.-   Or^.nal-Copyrightea^hy     ^_^ 

AnegtanyP^ag;  Railway.-    Original  furnished  by  the  Pe^^^nsyl-     ^^^ 

vania  Railroad      .        •        •        •        '  j„^^„^,  i„. 

Early  Post  Roads  and  Canals.     Basco  oi  ^^^ 

provements To  face  22* 

Early  Canals  still  in  Use       .         •         •    '  •  '  locomotive          .  224 

Early  Railroad  Trains.     ^-^^"' ^^''"l^; Eastern  and  Southern 
Railroad  Construction.  1830-1860.     The  Lastern        ^      ^^^^^^     ^^ 

Cotto^trmers.  Calhoun,  Alabama.    •phot;gra;hs  furnished^hy     ^^^ 

Charlotte  R.  Thorne      .        •        •        '.    i^xv^^\.t^  by 
Cotton  Gin  and  Warehouse,  Mobile.     Photograp        ^      ^^^^^^    ^^^ 

H.  W.  Farnum      •         ^        '        *        '        '         .      r^j/a^     242 
Cotton  Traffic  at  Mobile 


List  of  Jllustfutions 


XV 


P/VGB 

Trails  into  the  Far  West.    Adapted  from  Inman's  Maps    To  face    246 
Railroad    Construction,    1830-1860.       The    Mississippi    Valley 

To  face  250 
Exports,  Imports,  and  Tonnage,  1 789-1 860.  ....  257 
Evolution  of  the  Reaper.  Photographs  furnished  by  the  Inter- 
national Harvester  Company  ....  To  face  262 
An  Old  Time  Clipper.  Hart,  Source  Readers  ....  268 
Distribution  of  Population  in  i860.      Statistical  Atlas.     United 

States  Census,  1900 281 

Relation  of  Imports,  Sales  of  Public  Lands,  and  Railroad  Con- 
struction to  Financial  Crises .......     302 

Hauling    Fertilizer    ton    to    Dead    Lands,    Calhoun,    Alabama 

To  face    310 
Threshing  Wheat  with  Traction  Engine,  North  Dakota.     Photo- 
graphs furnished  by  the  International  Harvester  Company 

To  face     310 

The  Fall  Line 311 

Sugar  Plantation  in  the  Hawiian  Islands.     Japanese  Laborers. 

Photographs  furnished  by  Professor  Henshaw  .  To  face  318 
Wayside  Forge  —  Coke  Ovens,  Alabama  .  .  .  To  face  322 
Exports,  Imports,  and  Tonnage,  1 860-1 908  ....     329 

Pine  Apple    Plantation.     Photographs   furnished  by  Hawaiian 

Pineapple  Company To  face     330 

Ratio  of  Silver  to  Gold,  1 780-1 909 338 

Modern  Machinery  in  the  Corn  Belt.     Photographs  furnished  by 

the  International  Harvester  Company  .  .  .  To  face  340 
Principal  Railroad  Combinations,  1909  .  .  .  To  face  350 
Wages  and  Prices  prevailing  in  the  United  States,  1890-1909      .     368 

Slavic  Immigrants To  face     370 

Rice  Fields  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.     Chinese  Laborers.     Pho- 
tographs furnished  by  Professor  Henshaw    .         .       To  face    372 
Logging  in  the  Cascades.     Photographs  furnished  by  Warneck 

To  face     378 
The   Wastes   of   the   Lumberman.     Photographs   furnished  by 

Forestry  Service To  face     380 

The  Wastes  of  the  Mill.  Erosion  of  Iowa  Farm  Land  worth 
JP150  per  acre.  Photographs  furnished  by  Forestry  Ser- 
vice        To  face    384 

Distribution  of  Coal  Fields  in  the  United  States  .        ,      To  face    385 
Anthracite    Coal    Miners.      Photographs   furnished    by   C.    O. 

Thurston       . To  face    386 


xvi  List  of  Illustrations 

PAGS 

Mineral  Resources  of  Alaska.     U.  S.  Geological  Survey    To  face    388 

Navigable  Waterways.     Report  Inland  Waterway  Commission, 

1908 To  face    394 

The  National  Forests.  Photographs  furnished  by  Forestry  Ser- 
vice        To  face    39! 

The  Truckee-Carson  Project.  Photographs  furnished  by  Recla- 
mation Service To  face    403 

Irrigation  of  Western  Lands To  face    404 


THE    INDUSTRIAL    HISTORY 


OF  THE 


UNITED   STATES 


1^ 


INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE 
UNITED   STATES 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  LAND  AND  THE  PEOPLE 

The  Discovery  of  the  New  World 

The  explorers  of  the  sixteenth  century  opened  a  new 
world  to  the  industrial  enterprise  of  Europe.     Ancient 
civilization  had  centered  in  the  Orient.     Political  power 
and  commercial  influence  had  rested  in  turn  with  Egypt, 
China,  India,  Persia,  Greece,  and  Rome.     The  trade  of 
mediaeval  Europe  had  been  with  the  Levant.     Even  the 
Venetian  fleet,  though  it  sailed  once  a  year  to  London  and 
the  Baltic  ports,  never  ventured  out  into  the  Atlantic. 
The   westernmost   capes   were   called    Finisterre,   Land's 
End,  Ultima  Thule,  while  the  great  ocean  beyond  was 
known  as  the  Sea  of  Darkness.     Nameless  terrors  haunted 
its  stormy  waters,  and  merchantmen  hardly  ventured  out 
of  sight  of  the  famihar  headlands.     After  the  adoption  of 
the  mariner's  compass  the  Western  Islands  had  been  re- 
discovered, and  Genoese  pilots  in  the  employ  of  Portugal  Cheyney, 
had  braved  the  thousand  miles  of  stormy  sea  that  lay  be-  European 
tween  Lisbon  and  the  Azores,  but  no  man  dared  go  farther  of^AmScan 
west  or  south.    Only  when  the  Turkish  conquest  of  Con-  History, 
stantinople  and  the  eastern  Mediterranean  gave  the  cus-  ^^-  ^^• 
tomary  trade  routes  into  the  keeping  of  a  hostile  power, 
did  men  seek  to  traverse  the  Atlantic.     Monarchs,  such  as 
John  II  of  Portugal,  Isabella  of  Castile,  Henry  VII  of  Eng- 
land, sought  not  a  new  continent,  but  a  new  trade  route  to 
the  Orient  —  to  India,  China,  and  the  Spice  Islands. 

B  I 


i 


F      I 


Bourne, 
Essays  in 
Hist. 
Criticism, 
173-18Q. 

Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
America, 
I.  Ch.  IV. 


Yeats, 
The  Growth 
and  Vicissi- 
tudes of 
Commerce, 
Pt.n,Ch.IV. 


Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
America, 

I,  Ch.  V,  VI ; 

II,  Ch.  VII. 

Yeats, 

Pt.  II,  Ch.  V. 


Bourne, 
Essays  in 
Hist. 
Criticism, 
193-217- 


2  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Eastward  Route.  —  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  the 
Navigator,  first  undertook  to  find  an  "  outside  "  route  to 
India,  and  many  expeditions  were  sent  from  Lisbon  under 
the  auspices  of  the  astronomer  prince.    They  sailed  to 
southward  and  came  upon  Porto  Santo  and  Madeira,  the 
Canaries  and  Cape  Verde  Islands.     Creeping  along  the 
coast,  the  timorous  navigators  rounded  Cape  Verde  and 
crossed  the  dreaded  Equator.     Finally,  in  1487,  Bartholo- 
mew Diaz  circumnavigated  Africa  as  far  as  the  Great  Fish 
River.""  A  mutiny  among  his  sailors  forced  Diaz  to  return 
without  traversing  the  eastern  ocean;  but  ten  years  later 
Vasco  da  Gama  sailed  on  to  India.    The  conquest  of  the 
important  trading  ports  followed,  and  a  Portuguese  empire 
was  established  in  the  coveted  Spice  Islands.    Bartholo- 
mew Columbus,  a  younger  brother  of  Christo})her,  accom- 
panied Diaz,  and  it  is  thought  that  he  suggested  to  the 
discoverer  of  America  the  possibility  that  a  shorter  route  to 
the  Orient  might  be  found  by  sailing  directly  west.     Certain 
it  is  that  Bartholomew  submitted  this  plan  to  Henry  VII 
in  the  year  succeeding  his  momentous  voyage. 

The  Westward  Route.  —  When  Christopher  Columbus 
hit  upon  the  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  he  thought  that 
they  must  be  on  the  east  coast  of  Asia.  In  1503,  Americus 
Vespucius  sailed  from  the  Spanish  Main  to  the  thirty-fifth 
parallel,  south  latitude.  Finding  no  passage  to  the  west- 
ward, he  became  convinced  that  this  was  not  Asia  nor  the 
Spice  Islands,  but  a  new  world. 

Before  this  discovery.  Pope  Alexander  VI  had  declared 
a  division  of  the  newly  discovered  lands  between  the 
exploring  monarchs  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  All  the  islands 
lying  west  of  a  meridian  drawn  three  hundred  and  seventy 
leagues  west  of  the  Azores  were  assigned  to  Spain;  realms 
discovered  to  the  eastward  were  to  belong  t<3  her  zealous 
rival.  Ferdinand  Magellan,  a  Portuguese  navigator  sailing 
imder  the  auspices  of  Charles  V,  set  forth  to  circumnavi- 
gate South  America  and  penetrate  the  unknown  sea  be- 
yond, hoping  to  open  a  route  to  the  Indies  in  the  region  that 
belonged  to  his  master.    With  heroic  fortitude  he  and  his 


The  Land  and  the  People 


)\ 


I 


4  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

devoted  crew  braved  the  terrors  of  an  Antarctic  winter, 
threaded  the  windings  of  the  tortuous  strait  since  called 
by  his  name,  crossed  the  ten  thousand  miles  of  pathless 
Pacific,  and  finally  reached  the  Ladrones  and  the  PhiUp- 
pines.     Magellan  came  to  terras  with  the  king  of  Cebu, 
who  accepted  Christianity  and  guaranteed  to  Spain  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  trading  with  the  islands,  and  thus 
was  founded  a  Spanish  empire  in  the  Orient.     This  south- 
ern route  to  the  Spice  Islands  was,  however,  too  long  and 
difficult  to  serve  the  needs  of  trade.    The  search  for  a  more 
direct  passage  to  the  South  Sea  was  then  undertaken,  and 
continued  for  three  centuries.   Not  until  the  Northwest 
Passage  was  finally  proved  impracticable  did  explorers 
abandon  the  search.    The  westward  route  to  the  Indies 
was  never  found,  but  the  explorers  revealed  to  the  aston- 
ished gaze  of  Europe  a  new  world  —  a  virgin  continent  to 
conquer,  to  colonize,  to  exploit.    The  imaginations  of  men 
its  Geo  were  fired  by  the  undreamed-of  opportunity,  and  adven- 

grapWcCon-    turous  Spirits  gave  themselves,  body,  soul,  and  fortune,  to 
ditions,  ^^  prosecution  of  great  enterprises.     The  people  of  Europe 

^^'  ^'  finally  abandoned  the  Oriental  quest  and  turned  to  face 

the  Occident.  Thereafter  riches,  honor,  power,  were  sought 
in  the  Americas,  and  the  Atlantic  became  the  highway  of 
trade.  Modern  commerce  centers  in  western  Europe, 
and  the  balance  of  power  rests  with  the  nations  that  possess 
ports  on  the  Atlantic. 

Industrial  Resources  of  America.  —  Only  now,  after 
four  hundred  years  of  exploration,  are  the  resources  of 
the  New  World  fully  known.  Its  colossal  proportions  have 
been  gradually  revealed,  and  a  second  vast  sea,  twice  the 
width  of  the  Atlantic,  has  been  explored  to  its  farthest 
reach.  Balboa  did,  indeed,  sight  the  Pacific ;  but  he  sur- 
mounted the  land  barrier  at  just  that  point  where  the  east- 
em  and  western  shores  converge  to  an  isthmus  but  thirty 
miles  across.  To  north  and  south  of  this  connecting  strip 
of  land  stretch  great  continents.  Of  the  two  Americas, 
the  northern  has  proved  to  be  the  richer  in  natural  resources 
and  the  more  available  for  colonization.    It  has  the  advan- 


Semple, 
American 
History  and 
its  Geo- 


The  Land  and  the  People 


5 


tage  of  belonging  to  the  land  hemisphere  of  the  globe. 
North  America  is  one  of  a  ring  of  continents  gathered  about 
the  North  Pole.     Its  Arctic  coast  line  stretches  over  a  span 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  degrees,  and  only  a  narrow 
strait  divides  Alaska  from  Siberia,  while  Labrador  lies  but 
two  thousand  miles  west  of  Ireland.     Should  a  New  York 
steamer   take   the   northernmost   route,   rounding   Nova 
Scotia,  passing  through  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
Straits  of  Belle  Isle,  touching  at  Greenland,  Iceland,  and 
the  Shetland  Islands,  she  need  never  be  more  than  twelve 
hours  out  of  sight  of  land.     This  is  the  shortest  course 
from  America  to  Europe,  but  it  is  not  used  by  trading 
vessels  because  icebergs  and  head  winds  render  it  unsafe, 
and  because  these  subarctic  lands  offer  little  traffic.    It  is, 
however,  the  path  followed  by  the  first  discoverers  of 
America.    Vikings  from  Norway  estabUshed  a  colony  in 
Iceland  in  the  ninth  century  and  in  Greenland  in  the 
tenth.     Leif  Erickson  made  his  way  down  the  bleak  coasts 
of  Labrador  to  Nova  Scotia,  possibly  to  New  England,  in 
the  year  looo  a.d.     So  inhospitable  were  these  countries 
that  the  Norse  adventurers  abandoned  their  westward 
quest  and  bent  their  long  keels  to  the  south,  to  the  booty- 
stocked  cities  of  Normandy,  France,  and  the  Mediterranean. 
Along  the  fortieth  parallel  the  Atlantic  measures  three 
thousand  miles  from  shore  to  shore ;  but,  in  spite  of  its 
greater  length,  this  has  become  the  highway  of  commerce. 
Here,  in  a  latitude  where  ice  offers  no  obstacle  to  navi- 
gation, lie  the  best  harbors  of  the  American  coast,  those 
of  Portland,  Boston,  and  New  York.    Here,  too,   great 
estuaries.  Long  Island  Sound,   Delaware  Bay,  and  the 
Chesapeake,  enable  the  largest  vessels  to  sail  far  inland ; 
and  here  deep  rivers,  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware,  supple- 
ment ocean  traffic.    This,   moreover,   is  just  the  most 
productive  portion  of  America.    In  the  huge  bend  of  the 
coast  between  Cape  Cod  and  Cape  Hatteras,  soil  and 
climate  and  mineral  resources  combine  to  create  the  richest 
hinterland  of  the  New  World.     More  important  even  than 
this  physical  endowment  is  the  trade  wafted  to  these 


Farrand, 
Basis  of 
American 
History, 
Ch.  L 


i 


6  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

shores.  North  America  stands  over  against  the  com- 
mercial nations  of  Europe  and  thus  has  direct  entry  to  the 
best  markets  of  the  Old  World. 

The  southern  continent    juts    out    into    the  Atlantic 
farther  than  the  northern.     Cape  St.  Roque  is  but  one 
thousand   miles  west  of   Cape  Verde.    Her   rivers   and 
harbors  are  no  less  serviceable,  but  South  America  has  the 
misfortune  to  face  the  Dark  Continent  -  the  uncivilized 
African  coast.    Both  North  and  South  America  are  walled 
off  from  the  Pacific.    A  lofty  mountain  range  runs  the 
length  of  the  western  coast  from  Alaska  to  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,   unbroken  save   at   the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 
Even  in  Pacific  trade  the  northern  continent  has  the  ad- 
vantage, since  it  extends  forty -five  degrees  farther  west  m 
the  fortieth  latitude,  the  latitude  of  commerce.     From  ban 
Francisco  to  Yokohama  is  but  forty-six  hundred  miles 
while  from  Callao  to  the  Oriental  ports  is  a  voyage  of 
eleven  thousand  miles.     North  America  fronts  the  com- 
mercial opportunities  of  Asia,  while  South  America  stands 
vis-a-vis  to  a  submerged  continent. 

The  Territory  of  the  United  States  occupies  preasely  the 
most  favored  portion  of  this  favored  continent.    We  com- 
mand the  best  harbors  of  the  Pacific  as  well  as  of  the 
Atlantic  coast.    On  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  navigable  rivers 
and  excellent  harbors  further  our  commerce  with  subtropic 
lands     The  Great  Lakes  we  share  with  Canada,  but  theu: 
terminal  harbors,  those  of  Duluth,  Chicago,  and  Buffalo, 
happen  to  be  within  our  boundaries.     Taken  in  connection 
with  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi  rivers,  this  chain 
of  seas  makes  up  a  system  of  inland  navigation  unrivaled 
in  the  world.    From  the  Strait  of  Belle  Isle  to  the  head  of 
Lake   Superior   stretches   a   water  highway   twenty-four 
hundred  miles  in  length  and  so  direct  that  the  Norsemen 
found  their  way  to  the  Dakotas.    The  headwaters  of 
navigation  on  the  Mississippi  may  be  reached  by  short 
portages  from  the  Great  Lakes.    The  father  of  waters 
flows  through  a  vast  valley,  unsurpassed  for  productive 
capacity,  to  a  sea  circumscribed  by  tropic  islands.     A  most 


Tke  Land  and  the  People  / 

promising  opening  for  reciprocal  trade  is  thus  afforded. 
The  area  of  the  United  States  comprises  every  variety  of 
soil,  climate,  and  humidity  known  to  the  temperate  zone, 
while  the  variations  of  altitude  admit  of  great  diversity 
of  agricultural  products.  Its  mountain  ranges  contain 
rich  veins  of  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  iron,  and  its  coal 
deposits  are  the  best  in  existence  and  of  vast  extent. 
Little  of  the  latent  possibilities  of  this  land  was  revealed  to 
the  first  explorers.  Its  industrial  resources  were  dimly 
guessed  by  the  navigators  who  skirted  its  coasts  and  sent 
back  to  their  patrons  fabulous  reports  of  the  spontaneous 
products  there  abounding. 

The  Peopling  of  North  America 

The  character  of  the  men  who  undertake  to  develop  the 
economic  possibiUties  of  a  country  is  even  more  important 
than  the  nature  and  extent  of  its  natural  resources.  Energy, 
initiative,  industry,  are  the  traits  that  determine  the 
material  achievements  of  a  nation.  The  most  propitious 
physical  endowment  can  avail  Uttle  if  the  inhabitants  of 
the  land  are  so  ignorant  or  so  sluggish  as  to  leave  its  re- 
sources unexploited. 

The  Aborigines  of  North  America,  so  far  as  history  knows 
them,   were  lacking  in   these   essential   economic   traits. 
Among  the  Iroquois  of  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  the  Cher- 
okees  of  the  Appalachians,  as  among  the  Pueblos  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  a  considerable  degree  of  industrial 
and  social  advancement  had  been  attained  before  the  com- 
ing of  the  white  man.     The  Zuiiis  were  cultivating  the  soil 
for  corn  and  various  vegetables  and  carrying  on  certain 
manufactures,  such  as  pottery  and  cloth,  to  the  point  of 
artistic  form  and  color.    A  well-organized  community  life 
had  been  evolved  by  the  Pueblo  Indians;   but  not  even 
here  was  the  race  endowment  sufficient  to  enable  the  native 
peoples  to  hold  their  own  when  brought  face  to  face  with 
Europeans.    The  most  civiUzed  of  all,  the  Aztecs  of  Old 
Mexico,  had  hardly  passed  beyond  the  barbarous  stage 


Shaler, 
United 
States  of 
America, 
I,  1-34- 

Roosevelt, 
Winning  of 
the  West, 
I,  Ch.  I. 

Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
America, 
I,  Ch.  I. 


Farrand, 
Ch.  XIV, 
XV. 


Roosevelt, 
I,  49,  SI.  76. 


I 


Fiske, 

Discovery  of 
America,  11, 
Ch.  VIII,  X. 


li 


Bourne, 
Spain  in 
America, 

Ch.  VI,  vn 


8  Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  evolution.    The  famous   empire  of  Montezuma  was 
probably  nothing  more  than  a  confederacy  of  pueblos. 

The  industrial  inefl&ciency  of  the  aborigines  was  evident 
from  the  fact  that  in  the  rich  forest  region  lying  between 
the  Atlantic  coast  and  the  Mississippi  River  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  Indians  found  barely  suffiden|__^ 
sustenance.  The  same  area  now  supports  sixty  million 
whites,  every  one  of  whom  has  an  ampler  and  more  con- 
stant food  supply  than  any  Indian  brave  could  count  on. 
The  occupation  of  this  continent  by  Europeans  meant 
the  immediate  substitution  of  civilization  for  barbarism 
and  the  rapid  utilization  of  hitherto  unexploited  resources. 
The  energy,  the  mitiative,  and  the  industry  of  civilized  races 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  a  virgin  continent.  This  com- 
bination of  industrial  efficiency  with  natural  resources  of 
extraordinary  extent  and  variety  has  resulted  in  economic 
achievements  unparalleled  in  the  world's  history. 

Spain  was  the  first  of  the  European  nations  upon  the 
field,  and  hers  was  apparently  the  best  chance  of  success. 
The  Spanish  explorers  had  hit  upon  the  most  immedi- 
ately profitable  region  of   the  New  World.     Columbus, 
sailing  due  west  from  the  Canary   Islands,   came  first 
upon  the  Bahamas.    Later  voyages  brought  him  to  one 
and  another  of  the  beautiful  tropic  islands  of  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  and  these  hospitable  and  fruitful  lands  furnished  an 
excellent  base  from  which  to  explore  the  coasts  of  the  ad- 
joining continent.     In  his  fourth  and  last  vo>  ige  Columbus 
skirted  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  got  from  the  coant 
Indians  reports  of  a  rich  and  populous  country  back  in  the 
interior   where   manufactures  and   commerce   were   well 
developed.     Twenty  years  later  Cortes  set  out  upon  an  ex- 
pedition that  resulted  in  the  conquest  of  Mexico.     Gua- 
temala,  Honduras,  Yucatan,   and  Nicaragua  were  soon 
.  added  to  the  New  Worid  dominions  of  the  king  of  Spain. 
After  several  baffling  failures,  the  Pizarros  succeeded  in 
landing  at  Tumbez  and  soon  an  astute  combination  of 
diplomacy  and  force  gave  the  "  golden  kingdom  "  into 
their  hands.     Columbus  had  found  gold  on  Hispaniola 


ROUTES  OF  THE  EXPLORERS 


I— 
0 


Columbai 

-  Ist  voyage,  1492-'93 

-  2nd  voyage,  1493-'96 
■    3rd  voyage,  1498-1.500 
'    4th  voyage,  1502-1504 

John  and  Sebastian  Cabot,  1497-'9I 

'KKI*  I   Hojeda  end  Amerigo  Vespucci,  1499 
■  —»—"-  Ponce  de  Leon,  1513 
« =  11  = ..     Hernando  Cortes,  1519 
— —  Alonzo  de  Kneda,  1519 

Giovanni  da  Verrazano,  1524 

UT-TM"!  Francisco  Pizarro,  1526 
Panfilo  de  Nan-aei,  1535 

ntlX     iwnr.   lOSTOIl 


SCALE  OF  MILES 

200      400      600     800     1000 


.  _  ».  Jacque*  CarHer,  1534-'35 
AAAA*    Fray  Marcos,  1539 
..».<.•..   Hernando  de  Soto,  1539-'42 
inowiiiwii  Francisco  deCoronado,1540-'41 

,  ♦  ,  »   Sir  Francis  Drake,  1579 

'tMfti    Henry  Hudson,  1610-11 

1 Samuel  de  Champlain,  1615-'16 

♦—♦^  Joliet  and  Marquette,  1673 

"■■■>"■■■■  Robert  de  La  Salle,  1681-'82 
M>%9  *  1   Varenne  La  Verendrye,  1731 

»  >  »  >  >   Capt.  Bobert  Gray,  1792 
=  =  =  r  Lewis  and  Clark,  1806 


lioutes  indicated  by  color  and  hau  li;!ii:. 


The  Land  and  the  People 


I4 


\ 


in  quantities  that  promised  a  rich  return,  the  followers 
of  Cortes  had  hit  upon  apparently  inexhaustible  veins  of 
silver  at  Potosi  and  Zacatecas  in  Mexico ;  but  all  previous 
finds  were  outdone  by  the  vandals  who  looted  the  treasures 
of  the  Incas.  The  ransom  of  Atahualpa  was  a  roomful 
of  gold  vases  whose  total  value  is  estimated  at  $15,000,000. 
Spanish  galleons  sailed  back  across  the  Atlantic,  their 
holds  stuffed  with  gold  and  silver,  and  Spanish  sea  captains 
returned  home  to  Uve  in  luxury  on  their  ill-won  fortunes. 

This  easily  gotten  wealth  had  a  demoraUzing  influence. 
The  energies  of  Spanish  adventurers  were  absorbed  in  the 
quest  for  gold,  and  no  land  seemed  to  them  worthy  of  at- 
tention that  did  not  give  promise  of  limitless  treasure.  The 
vast  regions  to  the  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  were  ex- 
plored in  vain.  Ponce  de  Leon  (15 13)  sought  the  fabled 
fountain  of  youth,  while  D'Ayllon  (1526)  and  Gomez  (1525) 
examined  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Labrador  to  Florida  in 
quest  of  a  passage  to  the  Indies  less  circuitous  than  that 
traversed  by  Magellan.  Neither  gold  mines  nor  a  direct 
route  to  the  Orient  rewarded  their  toils,  and  the  country 
looked  forbidding  to  eyes  wonted  to  a  tropical  vegetation. 
Peter  Martyr  d'Anghiera,  the  friend  of  Columbus,  com- 
menting disapprovingly  on  Gomez'  enterprise,  wrote: 
"To  the  South,  to  the  South  for  the  great  and  exceeding 
riches  of  the  Equinoctiall :  they  that  seek  riches  must  not 
go  into  the  cold  and  frozen  North." 

Later  expeditions  into  the  interior  discovered  no  El 
Dorado.  Pineda  sailed  up  the  Mississippi  River  (1519) 
andsaw  Indians  wearing  gold  ornaments.  Narvaez  (1525) 
and  De  Soto  (1539-1542)  in  turn  perished  in  the  pursuit 
of  a  kingdom  that  might  be  as  well  worth  the  plundering 
as  Peru.  The  survivors  of  Narvaez'  ill-fated  expedition 
forced  their  way  across  the  plains  of  Texas,  up  the  Rio 
Grande,  and  over  the  mountams  to  Culiacan,  the  northern- 
most outpost  of  the  Mexican  conquest.  From  Culiacan 
later  adventurers  set  out  to  find  the  seven  cities  of  Cibola 
and  their  storied  treasures.  Fray  Marcos  (1539)  pene- 
trated the  interior  as  far  as  the  Zuni  pueblos  of  New  Mexico. 


^1 


lO 


Fiske, 

New  France 
and  Ne\ 
England, 
Ch.  I-IV. 


Laut, 

Pathfinders 
of  the  West, 
Pt.  I. 


Thwjutes, 
France  in 
America, 
Ch.  IV,  V. 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Dix, 
Champlain, 


Coronado's  expedition  (i  540-1 542)  pushed  farther  north 
to  a  fork  of  the  Platte  River,  but  only  squaUd  Indian 
villages  rewarded  his  heroic  endeavor.  For  two  centuries 
thereafter  all  attempt  to  develop  the  Spanish  dominions 
north  of  the  thirty-first  parallel  was  abandoned. 

France.  —  Th^^apal  bull,  that  assumed  to  divideJLhfi— 
New  World  between  Spain  and  Portugal  was  challenged 
by  Francis  T,  the  dramatic  king  of  France.    It  is  said  that 
he'^sent  a  saucy  message  to  Charles  V,  asking  him  by  what 
right  he  and  the  kmg  of  Portugal  had  undertaken  to  mo- 
nopolize the  round  earth.    The  authority  of  the  Holy  See 
weighed  but  Ughtly  upon  sixteenth  century  Frenchmen, 
and  they  determined  to  have  their  share  in  the  exploitation 
of  America.    They  sought  their  treasure  in  the  sea.    As 
early  as  1504  fishing  smacks  from  Brittany  and  Normandy 
found  their  way  to  the  shoals  off  Newfoundland,  and  by 
1578  France  had  as  large  a  fishing  fleet  in  these  waters  as 
Spain  and  Portugal  combined.    These  sturdy  fishermen 
established  France's  claim  to  httoral  rights  on  the  adjoin- 
ing shores  —  a  claim  that  has  vexed  the  souls  of  diplomats 
to  this  day.    In  1524  Verrazano,  an  Italian  adventurer 
in  command  of  a  French  corsair,  explored  the  Atlantic 
coast  from  Cape  Fear  north  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 
Ten  years  later  Jacques  Cartier  followed  up  the  great  river 
as  far  as  Montreal  and  founded  the  claim  of  France  to  that 
section  of  the  New  World.    The  first  attempts  at  settle- 
ment were  made  farther  south  and  well  within  Spanish 
territory,  but  the  unhappy  fate  of  the  Huguenot  colonies 
at  Port  Royal  and  Fort  CaroUne  determined  the  limits 
of  French  adventure.    Thereafter  explorers  from  France 
were  content  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  St.  Lawrence.    They 
soon  came  upon  that  wonderful  chain  of  inland  seas,  and 
followed  their  lead  to  the  heart  of  the  continent.     Cham- 
plain,  who  traversed  (161 5)  Lakes  Huron  and  Ontario  with 
an  Indian  war  party,  thought  he  had  discovered  the  North- 
west Passage  and  the  long-sought  route  to  the  Indies. 
Later  adventurers  found  a  more  important  trade  route, 
the  great  river  that  connects  the  lake  region  with  the  Gulf 


T/ie  Land  and  the  People 


II 


of  Mexico.  Nicollet  (1639)  reached  the  Wisconsin  River, 
though  he  did  not  follow  its  current.  In  1673  the  trader 
Joliet  and  Pere  Marquette  paddled  up  the  Fox  and  down 


The  French  Settlements. 


;i 


Thwaites, 

Father 

Marquette. 

Benton, 
Wabash 
Trade 
Route, 
Ch.  I. 


Laut, 

Pathfinders 
of  the  West, 
Pt.  II. 


Semple, 
25-31- 


12         Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

the  Wisconsin  to  the  Mississippi,  and  on  to  the  point  where 
the  Arkansas  flows  in  from  the  west.    La  Salle  finally 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  (1682)  and  claimed 
the  vast  drainage  basin  for  France.     In  honor  of  the  Grand 
Monarque  this  splendid  acquisition  was  named  Louisiana. 
Neither  gold  mines  nor  the  Northwest  Passage  rewarded 
the  zeal  of  the  French  exjilorers.     The  Indians  told  of 
veins  of  pure  copper  cropping  to  the  surface  near  Lake 
Superior,  but  mines  could  not  profitably  be  worked  for 
lack  of  labor.    The  natives  were  skilled  hunters,  however, 
and  fortunes  might  be  made  in  the  fur  trade,  and  all  the 
energies  of  the  French  government  were  bent  toward  the 
development   of    this   promising    traffic.     Trading   posts 
were  established  wherever  a  river  or  an  Indian  trail  gave 
access  to  the  hunting  grounds,  forts  were  built  at  strategic 
points,  missions  rose  beside  them,  and  the  Indian  tribes 
were  held  in  check  by  a  diplomatic  alternation  of  bullets 
and  the  gospel.     The  characteristic  types  in  these  forest 
settlements  were  the  soldier,  the  fur  trader,  and  the  priest. 
The  bateaux  of  the  voyageurs  were  ever  seeking  new  channels 
of  trade.     Making  their  way  up  the  rivers  that  flow  into 
the  Mississippi,  they  succeeded  in  monopolizing  the  traffic 
in  peltries  over  the  vast  valley  lying  between  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.     It  was   a   French 
trader.  La  Verendrye,  who  crossed  the  watershed  between 
Lake  Superior  and  the  upper  Missouri  (1738),  and  his  sons 
caught  the  first  glimpse  of  the  western  range,  the  peaks 
of  the  Big  Horn  Mountains,  full  seventy-fi\'e  years  before 
the  exploring  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clark. 

The  French  settlements  were  determined  l)y  considera- 
tions of  water  transportation.  Quebec  and  Montreal  gave 
control  of  the  St.  Lawrence  ;  Frontenac,  Niagara,  Detroit, 
Michilimackinac,  and  St.  Marie  guarded  the  entrances  to 
the  Great  Lakes ;  St.  Xavier  watched  beside  the  first  and 
best  trade  route  to  the  Mississippi;  Fort  Duquesne  domi- 
nated the  upper  Ohio;  Vincennes,  the  Wabash;  Fort 
Crevecceur,  the  Illinois.  Traffic  on  the  Mississippi  was 
equally  well  protected  by  a  series  of  fortified  posts.     Mobile 


The  Land  and  the  People 


13 


(1701)  and  New  Orleans  (1721)  were  founded  on  the  Gulf 
coast  in  defiance  of  Spanish  preoccupation. 

Thus  was  outlined  a  noble  empire  quite  worthy  of  the 
ambition  of  Louis  XIV.     Infinite  courage,  devotion,  self- 
sacrifice,  went  into  the  effort  to  establish  the  claim  of 
France  to  this  portion  of  the  New  World,  but  the  enter- 
prise ended  in  failure  and  loss.    The  French  domain  was 
forfeited  because  the  French  colonies  had  no  lasting  in- 
dustrial basis.     French  settlements  did  not  strike  root 
because  neither  soldier,  priest,  nor  voyageur  had  a  life 
interest  in  the  country.     When  the  fur-bearing  animals 
were  killed  off  and  the  Indian  tribes  had  retreated  into 
the  interior,  the  mission  trading  post  dwmdled  into  in- 
significance.    Only  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  where  agri- 
cultural colonies  were  planted,  did  the  French  secure  a 
permanent  hold  upon  the  region  opened  up  by  their  ex- 
plorers.    To  Sir  John  Hawkins,  who  visited  Port  Royal 
in  1565  and  foimd  the  colonists  starving  in  the  midst  of 
plenty,    the   difficulty   was   evident.     "  Notwithstanding 
the  great  want  that  the  French  had,  the  ground  doth  yeeld 
.victuals  sufficient,  if  they  would  have  taken  paines  to  get 
the  same ;  but  they  being  souldiers,  desired  to  live  by  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  browes." 

Great  Britain.  —  England's  right  to  a  share  in  North 
America  rested  upon  the  exploring  expeditions  sent  out 
by  Henry  VII.     John  and  Sebastian  Cabot  (1497-1498) 
skirted  the  coast  from  Cape  Breton  to  Cape  Hatteras  and 
laid  claim  to  the  territory  in  the  name  of  the  niggardly 
monarch  who  financed  the  expedition.     The  opening  was 
Uttle  prized  at  the  time  and  not  immediately  followed  up, 
for  the  region  seemed  unpromising.     No  gold  mines  were 
discovered,  and  nature  was  far  less  kind  than  in  the  tropic 
islands  farther  south.     There  was  no  lack  of  adventurous 
mariners  in  sixteenth  century  England,  but  the  nation's 
energies  were  absorbed  in  a  life  and  death  struggle  with 
Spain.     English  sea  captains  found  more  honor  and  profit 
in  sacking  the  rich  towns  of  the  Spanish  Main  and  pillaging 
the  treasure  ships  on  their  homeward  voyages,  than   in 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
m,  396. 


Hakluyt's 
Voyages, 
X.  S6. 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 
1,  Ch.  I. 


f 


Hakluyt's 
Voyages, 
XI,  101-132. 

Payne, 
Voyages  of 
Elizabethan 
Seamen, 
First  Series, 
196-229. 


Osgood, 
American 
Colonies, 
I.  Pt.  I, 
Ch.  I.  — 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
in,  Ch.  IV. 


Jt/^  ^'I  .. 


Tyler, 

England 
in  America, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


[ 


\ 


Weeks, 
Lost  Colony 
of  Roanoke. 


14        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

exploration  along  the  bleak  Atlantic  coast.  Yet  credit 
for  the  first  important  discoveries  in  the  north  Pacific 
belongs  to  England.  Sir  Francis  Drake  (157 7-1 585) 
sailed  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan  liid  up  the  west 
coast  of  South  America,  where  he  plundered  the  Spanish 
ports  and  the  galleons  on  their  way  home  from  Peru. 
Not  wishing  to  risk  his  booty  by  returning  through  Spanish 
waters,  he  sailed  on  up  the  coast  of  the  northern  continent 
to  the  forty-third  parallel  and  then  across  the  Pacific  and 
Indian  oceans,  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  so 
home  to  Plymouth  harbor. 

Drake  was  the  first  navigator  to  "  put  a  girdle  around 
the  earth,"  but  he  had  no  thought  of  colonies.  Thejirst 
attempt  to_settle^the  British  possessions  in  America  was 
made  by  the  brave  and  knightly  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert. 
Obtaining  the  queen's  commission,  he^sailed  directly  across 
the  Atlantic  and  landed  somewhere  on  the  coast  of  New- 
foundland in  June,  1583.  The  season  was  delightful,  and 
raised  false  hopes  of  success,  but  winter  brought  cold  and 
tempests  such  as  these  Englishmen  had  never  experienced, 
and  the  enterprise  was  abandoned.  On  the  homeward 
voyage  Gilbert's  ship,  the  Squirrel,  went  down  with  all 
on  board.  His  younger  half-brother^  Sir  Walter  Ralegh, 
succeeded  to  his  commission  and  his  task.  Ralegh  was 
the  son  of  an  English  sea  ca])tain.  While  still  a  student 
at  Oxford  he  conned  with  Hakluyt,  compiler  of  "The 
Voyages  and  Discoveries  of  the  English  Nation,"  the  per- 
plexing maps  of  the  New  World  and  read  all  the  narratives 
of  the  explorers  then  available.  Student  though  he  was 
and  courtier,  he  was  a  man  of  action  as  well.  Consumed 
by  the  passionate  desire  to  secure  for  England  her  due 
share  in  the  wealth  of  the  New  World,  he  staked  fame  and 
fortune,  life  itself,  on  the  undertaking.  Three  separate 
expeditions  this  great  patriot  sent  out  at  his  own  charge. 
Forty  thousand  pounds  was  spent  in  the  endeavor  to  plant 
an  English  colony  at  Roanoke  Island  (1585-1589),  but 
a  series  of  unavoidable  misfortunes  thwarted  the  enter- 
prise.   On  the  accession  of  James  I,  Ralegh  was  thrown 


I 


The  Land  and  the  People 


15 


into  the  Tower,  where  he  was  finally  beheaded;  but  his 
undaunted  soul  never  lost  faith  in  the  ultimate  realiza- 
tion of  his  dream.  Of  Virginia,  the  land  his  devoted  service 
had  won  for  England,  he  said,  "  I  shall  yet  live  to  see  it  an 
English  nation."  Though  Ralegh's  colonies  failed,  and 
his  hope  of  discovering  an  El  Dorado  on  the  Orinoco  came 
to  naught,  the  explorations  undertaken  at  his  expense  re- 
enforced  England's  claim  to  the  territory  south  of  Cape 
Hatteras  and  indicated  the  most  favorable  location  for 
future  endeavor. 

The  physical  conditions  of  the  Atlantic  coast  were  highly 
favorable  to  colonization  from  England,  for  the  British 
possessions  lay  directly  across  the  sea  from  Plymouth 
and  the  Cinque  Ports.  Throughout  the  sixteenth  century 
English  sea  captains  had  followed  the  Spanish  route  and 
steered  south  to  the  Canaries,  then  due  west  to  the  Antilles, 
and  thence  north  to  Cape  Fear.  Ralegh's  costly  expe- 
ditions made  this  circuitous  voyage.  In  1602  Barthol- 
omew Gosnold,  one  of  Ralegh's  associates,  ventured  to 
sail  straight  across  the  Atlantic  and  came,  happily,  upon 
Massachusetts  Bay.  This  adventure  proved  that  England 
lay  one  thousand  miles  nearer  to  her  American  provinces 
than  did  Spain  to  hers,  and  thereafter  the  direct  route  was 
usually  followed.  The  strip  of  coast  open  to  British  enter- 
prise was,  moreover,  peculiarly  accessible  from  the  sea.  Semple, 
A  fine  series  of  rivers  —  the  Connecticut,  the  Hudson,  the  ^^-  ^^• 
Delaware,  the  Susquehanna,  the  Potomac,  the  James  — 
take  their  rise  in  the  Appalachian  highlands  and,  being 
navigable  for  small  boats  well-nigh  to  their  sources,  proved 
as  serviceable  to  explorers  and  pioneers  as  so  many  mac- 
adamized roads. 

The  first  successful  English  settlement,  Jamestown,  was  Fiske, 
made  on  a  tributary  of  the  wonderful  bay  that  Ralegh  Old  Virginia 
had  divined  to  be  an  open  highway  to  the  wealth  of  Vir-   Neighbors, 
ginia.     The  feasibility  of  an  agricultural  settlement  once  I.  Ch.  III. 
demonstrated,  others  quickly  followed.     Plymouth  colony 
was  planted  in  1620,  Salem  in  1628,  Boston  in  the  year 
following.     From  1630  to  1640  no  year  passed  but  saw 


1 6        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


The  Land  and  the  People 


17 


Semple, 
Ch.  III. 


some  shipload  of  colonists  leave  Bristol  or  Plymouth  or 
London  bound  for  America.  No  harbor  or  inlet  or  river 
in  his  Majesty's  plantations  but  was  explored  by  these 
brave  home  seekers.  By  1640  there  were  twenty-one 
thousand  settlers  in  New  England  alone  and  [)erhaps  half 
as  many  more  in  Virginia.  During  the  next  twenty  years, 
I  the  Puritans  stayed  at  home  and  the  Royahsts  were  fain 
j  to  find  a  refuge  in  Virginia,  but  the  restored  Stuarts  forced 
the  migration  of  another  crop  of  traitors  and  malcontents. 
Oglethorpe's  colony  in  Georgia  (1732)  attracted  poor 
debtors  and  other  unfortunates  from  Europe  as  well  as 
from  the  British  Isles. 

Scattered  along  the  coast  from  Pemaquid  to  Savannah, 
rarely  venturing  inland  beyond  reach  of  na\'igable  water, 
divided  from  the  interior  of  the  continent  by  a  discourag- 
ing mountain  barrier,  settlers  in  the  English  provinces 
were  forced  to  make  the  most  of  the  land  within  their 
reach.  Geographic  conditions  favored  the  formation  of 
compact  communities.  The  lands  available  for  settle- 
ment were  in  a  narrow  strip  of  territory  rising  from  the  sea 
to  the  foothills  of  the  Appalachian  range.  The  northern- 
most third,  since  it  is  largely  mountainous,  offered  the 
least  attraction  to  colonists.  Southward  the  lowlands 
broaden  to  a  tract  of  three  hundred  miles  width.  Geo- 
logically this  lowland  is  divided  between  coastal  plain  and 
Piedmont  plateau.  Xlifc.j;oastal  plain  is  the  ancient  sea 
beach  Ufted  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  the  tide.  To 
the  north  it  is  represented  by  detached  areas  —  Cape  Cod, 
Nantucket,  Martha's  Vineyard,  Long  Island,  New  Jeresy, 
and  Delaware.  To  the  south  it  becomes  the  dominant 
physical  feature.  Pine  .barrens  cover  its  undulating  levels, 
but  in  the  river  bottoms  the  original  sand  and  gravel  are 
covered  with  alluvial  deposit.  Near  the  sea  the  land  oozes 
away  into  swamp  and  morass,  heavily  wooded  with  cypress 
and  Uve  oak,  and  along  the  Jersey  and  Carolina  coasts, 
bayous  and  open  sounds  divide  the  mainland  from  a  chain 
of  shifting  sand  dunes  that  form  the  outer  boundary. 
The  lands  of  the  coastal  plain  throughout  were  easily 


tl 


reached  and  cleared.  The  Piedmont  plateau  from  Penn- 
sylvania to  Georgia  is  rough  hill  country,  heavily  forested 
before  the  advent  of  the  white  man  with  pine,  hemlock, 
and  hard  woods.  The  "  fall  line  "  that  divides  the  coastal 
plain  from  the  Piedmont  indicates  the  drop  from  the  foot- 


hills to  sea  level  and  marks  the  head  of  navigable  water. 

Settlers  did  not  penetrate  this  "  back  country  "  till  the 

supply  of  fertile  lowlands  was  exhausted.  Fi^j.^. 

Holland.  —  Of  the  maritime  countries  of  Europe,  the  The  Dutch 

Dutch  were  by  no  means  the  least  enterprising,  but  their  ^"*'  Quaker 

energies  were  largely  absorbed  in  developing  their  trade  i.ch"m,iv. 
c 


Janvier, 
Henry 

Hudson, 

ch.  iv-vni. 


Mem.  Hist, 
of  New  York, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 


' 


1 8        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

interests  in  the  Orient.    The  commercial  opportunities 
of  the  western  continent  were  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam  by  the  voyage  of  Henry 
Hudson  (1609).     Commissioned  by  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  to  seek  out  the  ever  desired  North^vest  Passage, 
he  came  upon  a  wonderful  harbor  and  a  river,  up  which 
he  sailed  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  before  coming  upon 
shoal  water.     The  Indians    proving  friendly  and  ready 
to   exchange  valuable   furs   for   the  merest  baubles,  the 
merchants  of  Amsterdam  fitted  out  a  trading  ship,  and  in 
good  time  she  returned  with  a  profitable  cargo.     A  fortified 
trading  post  was  built  on  Castle  Island  just  below  Albany, 
another  on  Manhattan  at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  a 
third  on  the  Delaware.     In  i()2i  the  West  ImUa  Company 
was  chartered  and  given  monopoly  of  commerce  with  the 
West  Indies,   Africa,  and  the  American  coast,  and  full 
authority   to  plant  colonies   in   New   Netherland.    The 
Company's   trading   posts   gave   access   to   rich   hunting 
grounds,  and  a  brisk  commerce  in  furs  developed.     Soon 
an  annual  harvest  of  sixty-six  thousand  skins  was  sent  over 
to  the  furriers  of  fashionable  Europe.     Other  oj^portunities 
of  wealth  were  improved  by  the  doughty  Dutchmen.    The 
treasure  ships  of  Spain  were  lawful  booty,   and  slaves 
bought  on  the  Gold  Coast  of  Africa  might  be  sold  in  the 
West  Indies  for  many  times  their  purchase  i)rice. 

The  West  India  Company  grew  rich  apace,  but  their 
colonies  did  not  prosper.  The  inhabitants  of  New  Am- 
sterdam were  mere  servants  of  the  Company,  among  whom 
were  few  genuine  settiers.  The  agricultural  communities 
along  the  Hudson,  made  uj)  of  feudal  dependents  of  the 
"  patroons,"  were  discontented  and  eager  to  change  masters, 
Holland's  New  World  possessions  were  far  more  promising 
than  England's,  not  for  commerce  only,  but  for  agriculture 
and  manufactures.  The  Dutch  settiers  had  a  more  genial 
climate  and  a  more  fertile  soil  than  their  neighbors  to  the 
eastward,  their  forests  furnished  the  best  of  timber, 
and  their  rivers  afforded  unexcelled  water  pt^wer ;  but  in- 
dustry languished  because  the  fruits  of  labor,  the  surplus 


The  Land  and  the  People 


19 


products  of  field  and  loom  and  mill,  were  claimed  by  the 
over-lord  to  whom  the  home  government  had  given  the 
land.  The  fact  that  the  States-General  sent  them  gover- 
nors and  garrisons  did  not  much  signify  when  the  oppor- 
tunity for  acquiring  land  and  fortune  was  withheld,  and 
loyalty  waned  as  men  learned  how  the  English  villages 
throve  under  freer  laws.  So  it  came  about  that  when 
t^ngland,  jealous  of  the  commercial  ascendancy  of  Hol- 
land, sent  a  fleet  to  capture  her  trading  posts  in  America, 
there^vas  no  serious  resistance,  and  the  Dutch  governor  was 
obhged  to  surrendexNew  Amsterdam  ( 1 664)^ without  firing 
^_i^^i5J-t^^^^^^^^-  Immediately  settlers  began  to  pour 
in  from  the  English  colonies  north  and  south  and  from 
over  the  sea.  The  population  of  New  Netherland  at  the 
time  of  the  conquest  was  seventy-five  hundred.  It  had 
doubled  by  1696.  The  Swedish  settlements  along  the 
Delaware  succumbed  as  readily  to  English  influence. 
Thus  did  Great  Britain  acquire  title  to  the  Atlantic  coast 
from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  St.  Mary's  River. 

The  Final  Victory  of  the  English.  —  Once  rooted  in  a  soil 
unquestionably  their  own,  the  British  colonies  grew  with 
amazing  rapidity.  At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
there  were  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  of  the  king's 
subjects  in  America.  Fifty  years  more  saw  the  number 
rise  to  one  miUion  souls.  The  first  United  States  census 
(1790)  recorded  ^  j^nlati^n  of  th^^^  mi^li^"  "'ll^""'^-^^ 
and  jtwenty-nine  thousand  persons  of  European  descent. 
Fully  one  fifth  of  these  people  spoke  some  other  language  ] 
than  English  and  probably  not  more  than  half  were  of 
Anglo-Saxon  blood.  There  were  Dutch  communities  along 
the  Hudson,  German  in  Pennsylvania,  Swedish  along  the 
Delaware,  Italians  and  Salzburgers  and  French  in  Georgia, 
while  Huguenot  refugees  were  numerous  in  the  coast  towns, 
notably  Boston,  New  York,  and  Charleston ;  but  every- 
where the  dominant  element  was  of  English  extraction. 

This  extraordinary  migration  was  largely  due  to  social 
and  industrial  conditions.in  the  British  Isles.  The  religious 
and  political  tyranny  of  the  Commonwealth,  no  less  than 


Bancroft, 

Hist,  of 

United 

States, 

IV,  127-130 


Dexter. 
Population 
in  the 
American 
iColonies. 


1 


lit 


20        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

that  of  the  Stuarts,  drove  thinking  men  to  seek  opportunity 
to  work  out  their  own  convictions  in  a  land  where  there  was 
neither  priest  nor  king.     The  agricultural  revolution  con- 
sequent on  the  conversion  of  tilled  lands  into  sheep  pasture 
threw  thousands  of  men  out  of  employment.     The  peasant 
farmers  lost  their  holdings,  the  agricultural  laborers  were 
no  longer  needed,  and  seventeenth  century  England  was 
unable   to   maintain  her   sons.     The  surplus   population 
turned  to  the  New  World,  where  land  wasjQ  be  had,  for 
/         the  asking.     Most  of  the  men  who  crossed  the  Atlantic 
TirEnglish  vessels  werejK)t_pries^  spldiersJia£Eers,^old 
seekers,  but  men  bred  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soiL.   They 
brought  their  wives  and  children  with  them  and  purposed 
to  found  homes  in  America,  and  they  had  sober  ideas  con- 
cerning the  necessity  of  earning  their  bread  by  hard  work. 
The  land  open  to  Enghsh  settlement  contained  no  hoards 
of  gold  and  silver,  but  it  proved  to  have  sources  of  wealth 
no  less  remunerative  in  the  long  run.     Fur-bearing  animals 
were  abundant,  and  forests  of  pine  and  oak  yielded  naval 
stores  that  brought  a  good  i^rice  in  Old  World  markets. 
The  sea  teemed  with  edible  fish,  oysters,  and  lobsters. 
Captain  John  Smith,  who  explored  the  New  England  coast 
in  1614  and  wrote  a  rose-colored  account  of  its  ix)ssibilities, 
prophesied,  and  truly,  that  the  cod  fisheries  of  the  north 
Atlantic  would  profit  this  coujitry  more  than  the  heat  mines 
the  king  of  Spain  possessed.     Soil  and  climate  were  suited 
to  the  growing  of  familiar   European  cereals,   and  new 
products,  such  as  maize,  potatoes,  and  tobacco,  were  des- 
tined to  become  a  prolific  source  of  wealth. 

Four  European  nations  laid  claim  to  the  territory  now 
included  in  the  United  States,  and  each  attempted  to  secure 
its  title  by  planting  colonies  and  providing  for  military 
defense.  We  have  seen  how  Holland  lost  New  Nether- 
land  through  failure  to  plant  free  agricultural  colonies. 
France  made  strenuous  effort  to  hold  her  New  World  terri- 
tory, calling  in  the  Indians  to  defend  her  sparsely  peopled 
outposts;  but  in  1763  she  was  forced  to  surrender  her 
claim  to  the  eastern  half  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  forty 


The  Land  and  the  People 


21 


years  later  Louisiana  Territory  passed  into  the  possession 
of  the  United  States.  Spain  had  even  slighter  hold  on 
the  lands  north  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  for  no  permanent ; 
settlements  had  been  made  between  St.  Augustine  and 
Santa  Fe.  Missions  had  been  built  in  plenty,  and  the 
native  races  were  converted  to  the  Cathohc  church,  but 


not  to  European  civilization.  Here  were  noble  rivers, 
vast  forests,  and  a  soil  unsurpassed  for  fertility,  but  Span- 
ish adventurers  had  not  patience  to  undertake  the  develop- 
ment of  a  region  so  barren  of  immediate  gain.  Casteiiada, 
the  chronicler  of  Coronado's  unlucky  expedition,  had  no 
hope  of  success  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  "  because  that 
part  of  the  country  is  full  of  bogs  and  poisonous  fruits, 
and  the  very  worst  country  that  is  warmed  by  the  sun." 
By  a  series  of  treaties  the  United  States  has  secured  Spain's 
empire  in  North  America  —  the  Floridas  in  1819,  Texas 
in  1845,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  and  California  in  1848. 
The  English  race,  the  last  upon  the  scene,  with  apparently 
the  most  unpromising  field  for  colonial  enterprise,  was 
destined  to  occupy  the  whole  land  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Great  Lakes. 
Even  the  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama,  and  the  Spanish  Main  have  finally  come  under 
our  control.  The  Oriental  empire,  discovered  by  Magellan 
and  maintained  by  priests  and  soldiers  for  near  four  hundred 
years,  toppled  at  a  blow,  and  Spain  was  obliged  at  last 
to  surrender  the  Philippines  to  her  vigorous  rival. 


La  Salle's  Ship,  "The  GRirriN" 


I 


\ 


i 


Hakluyt's 
Voyages, 
X,  58. 

Payne, 
First  Series, 

63- 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

I,  43-47- 


Hakluyt, 
A  Discourse 
of  Western 
Planting, 
Maine  Hist. 
Society 
Collections, 
^877. 


CHAPTER   n 

THE   BUSINESS   ASPECTS   OF   COLONIZATION 

Contemporary  Estimates  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
British  possessions  in  America  were  colored,  naturally 
enough,  by  Spanish  experience.  The  first  explorers  sent 
home  exaggerated  reports  of  what  they  saw  and  heard. 
Verrazano  asserted  that  gold,  silver,  and  copper  abounded 
on  the  Carolina  coast,  and  Jacques  Cartier  gave  a  no  less 
hopeful  account  of  the  St.  Lawrence  country.  Jean  Ri- 
bault,  commandant  of  the  Huguenot  colony  at  Port  Royal, 
observed  that  the  natives  wore  ornaments  made  of  the 
precious  metals  and  argued  that  the  mines  could  not  be 
far  away.  John  Sparke,  the  chronicler  of  Hawkins's 
second  voyage,  shrewdly  suspected  that  the  Indians  had 
filched  their  gold  and  silver  from  the  wreck  of  Spanish 
treasure  ships  cast  upon  this  stormy  coast;  nevertheless, 
he  believed  that  back  in  the  interior  "  where  are  high  hilles, 
may  be  golde  and  silver  as  well  as  in  Mexico  because  it  is 
all  one  maine." 

As  the  country  became  better  known,  soberer  opinions 
prevailed.  Men  began  to  realize  that  the  great  advantage 
of  the  New  World  possessions  lay  in  the  fact  that  America 
was  a  virgin  continent  where  land  was  to  be  had  in  limit- 
less tracts  and  where  there  was  no  immediate  fear  of  a 
diminishing  return  from  the  soil.  In  "  Western  Planting," 
a  shrewd  estimate  of  the  possibilities  of  America  written 
by  Hakluyt,  we  find  set  forth  the  economic  advantage  that 
would  accrue  to  Great  Britain  from  the  planting  of  colonies 
across  the  sea.  Such  enterprises  would  serve  to  drain  off 
the  surplus  population  of  the  mother  country.  Thousands 
of  able-bodied  men,  yeomen,  and  artisans,  for  whom  there 

22 


TAe  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization 


23 


was  no  employment  at  home,  might  find  in  America  op- 
portunity to  earn  an  honest  living.  Such  colonies  would, 
also,  furnish  a  new  market  for  Enghsh  manufactures, 
which  were  languishing  for  lack  of  purchasers.  It  was  Hakluyt's 
hoped  that  even  the  savages  would  develop  a  taste  for  Vo>ages, 
clothes  and  would  thus  increase  the  demand  for  woolen  ^^"' '"' 
cloth  such  as  EngUsh  looms  produced  in  plenty.  In  ex- 
change for  her  surplus  manufactures,  the  colonists  would 
send  back  to  England  commodities  of  which  the  govern- 
ment stood  greatly  in  need  for  the  maintenance  of  the  navy, 
such  as  masts  and  spars,  tar  and  pitch,  cordage  and  iron. 
Timber  and  pitch  had  hitherto  been  imported  from  Russia 
and  Poland,  the  iron  had  come  from  Spain,  the  copper 
from  Sweden.  These  articles  could  be  had  from  America 
at  half  the  price  because  the  supply  was  limitless,  and  be- 
cause in  trade  with  English  colonies  there  could  be  none 
of  the  troublesome  exactions  suffered  in  the  dominions  of 
the  Czar,  none  of  the  risks  encountered  by  British  traders 
in  hostile  Spanish  ports.  This  colonial  traffic  would  give 
profitable  employment  to  Enghsh  merchant  vessels,  forced 
to  lie  idle  since  the  Dutch  commercial  ascendancy,  and  to 
English  seamen  who  were  hiring  themselves  to  foreigners, 
since  they  could  not  find  service  under  the  British  flag. 
Whatever  revenue  was  to  be  derived  from  tariffs  and  ton- 
nage duties  would,  moreover,  accrue  to  his  Majesty's 
treasury. 

The  Financing  of  the  Colonies 

The   Chartered   Companies.  —  So   evident   were   these  Brown, 
advantages   that   Parliament   was   urged   to   appropriate   Genesis  of 
money  for  equipping  a  colonial  venture  on  the  ground  that  states"^^ 
it  was  more  honorable  that  the  state  should  back  such  an  I.  36-42, 
enterprise  than  surrender  it  to  private  monopoly, 
state  fund  was  voted,  however,  and  at  the  request  of 
"  certain  firm  and  hearty  lovers  of  colonization,"  Hakluyt 
among  the  number,  the  king  intrusted  the  undertaking 
(1606)  to  two  joint  stock  companies  chartered  for  that 
purpose.     The  London  Company  was  assigned  the  region 


No  ^■'"^^' 
II,  692-696. 


i 


I' 


Lucas, 
Charters  of 
the  Old 
English 
Colonies, 
9-28. 


^-^"^-"^^  ^24        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Cheyney,        lying   between   the   thirty-fourth   and  the   thirty-eighth 
Ch.vii.vill.  parallels,  and  the  Plymouth  Company  that  between  the 
forty-first   and   the  forty-fifth.     The  region  intervening 
was  open    to   colonization  on  the  part   of   either   com- 
pany or  by  other  *'  adventurers."     Later  charters  (1609 
and    161 2)    vested    in    the    incorporators    the    govern- 
ment of  such  colonies  as  they  should  establish  and  the 
monopoly  of  trade  between  the  colonists  and  the  mother 
country.    The  money  necessary  to  fit  out  a  colonial  ex- 
pedition —  to  transport  colonists  and  provide  thti  food  and 
clothing  for  their  maintenance  during  the  initial  years  — 
was  secured  by  sale  of  stock.     Each  subscriber  received 
a  "  bill  of  adventure,"  which  entitled  him  to  a  share  in 
the  profits  of  the  enterprise.     It  soon  became  evident  that 
no  dividends  were  forthcoming,  but  subscriptions  were 
none  the  less  urged  on  grounds  of  public  expediency.    The 
planting  of  colonies  in  America  came  to  be  considered  a 
patriotic  obligation.     The  clergy  were  enjoined  to  urge 
it  upon  their  congregations  as  a  Christian  duty,    and 
lotteries  were  opened  in  this  interest.     One  hundred  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Commons  took  stock  in  the  London 
Company,  subscribing  from  £^^7  105.  to  £75  each.    The 
wealthy   citizens   of   Dover   and   Sandwich   contributed 
liberally  to  this  faraway  venture,  and,  in  response  to  the 
request  of  the  lord  mayor,  the  trade  guilds  of  London  opened 
their  coffers  and  gave  £5000  toward  the  founding  of  an 
English  colony  over-sea. 

The  sending  of  colonists  to  America  was  undertaken 
on  a  purely  business  basis.  The  initial  expenses  were 
great,  but  it  was  hoped  that  the  ultimate  profit  to  the 
adventurers  in  the  way  of  dividends  and  to  the  country 
as  a  whole  by  the  beneficial  effects  of  colonial  trade  would 
bring  full  compensation.  The  capital  accimiulated  by 
the  corporation  was  invested  in  supplies  —  agricultural 
implements,  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses,  and  food  to  last  the 
colonists  until  the  first  harvest.  For  a  term  of  from  five 
to  seven  years  the  supplies  were  treated  as  a  common  store 
from  which  the  needs  of  the  ''  planters  "  —  men,  women, 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I,  71.  280, 
306,309,  391, 
465,  46g ;  II, 
555,558,581, 
68s,  688. 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  25 

and  children  —  were  supplied.  Each  able-bodied  man  was 
to  work  according  to  his  capacity  at  the  task  assigned  him, 
whether  hunting,  fishing,  plowing,  or  at  carpentering  or 
smith's  work,  and  the  products  of  their  labor  were  turned 
into  the  common  stock.  The  first  houses  put  up  were 
used  by  all  in  common,  and  the  first  boats  built  belonged 
to  the  community.  Each  colony  was  expected  to  send 
some  marketable  product  to  the  representatives  of  the 
company  in  England. 

At  Jamestown,  the  first  enterprise  of  the  London  Com- 
pany, for  example,  a  magazine,  was  erected  for  housing  the 
common  stores,  and  a  "  cape  merchant  "  was  appointed 
to  receive  and  distribute  them.  The  plan  was  far  from 
successful,  because  it  did  not  offer  suflacient  incentive  to 
labor.  Few  men  will  put  forth  their  best  endeavors  when 
their  needs  are  met  out  of  a  pubUc  fund  and  they  realize 
no  advantage  from  individual  effort.  The  Jamestown 
colonists  shirked  their  tasks,  and,  the  supplies  being  soon 
exhausted,  Captain  Smith  was  forced  to  announce  that 
every  man  must  perform  his  share  of  the  work  or  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  colony.  "  Every  one  that  gathereth  not 
every  day  as  much  as  I  do,  the  next  day,  shall  be  set  be- 
yond the  river  and  forever  be  banished  from  the  fort,  and 
live  there  or  starv^e."  After  this  energetic  taskmaster 
returned  to  England  (1609),  the  fields  were  neglected, 
the  cattle  were  killed  for  eating,  and  the  "  starving  time  " 
came  upon  the  infant  colony.  But  for  the  timely  arrival 
of  Lord  Delaware  with  fresh  supplies  and  adequate  au- 
thority, the  Jamestown  settlement  would  have  met  the 
fate  of  Roanoke.  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  who  was  sent  out  by 
the  company  in  161 1,  put  matters  on  a  better  footing  by 
assigning  to  each  man  a  piece  of  garden  land  for  his  own 
use.  Thereafter  there  was  no  difficulty  in  inducing  the 
settlers  to  till  the  soil  on  their  own  account,  but  the  re- 
quirement that  they  should  labor  one  month  out  of  every 
year  for  the  company  was  grudgingly  obeyed.  So  eager 
were  the  directors  for  a  money  return  on  their  venture  that 
they  ordered  Captain  Newport,  when  he  sailed  for  Virginia 


it 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 

Osgood, 
I,  Pt.  I, 

Ch.  m. 

Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I,  71,  402- 
13- 

Works  of 
Captain 
John  Smith, 
89-174, 
497-543- 


Tyler, 

Ch.  m-vi. 


Bassett, 
Virginia 
Planter  and 
London 
Merchant. 


I 


W*7.' 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 


I,  34-44. 


ii' 


26        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

in  1608,  to  bring  back  a  cargo  of  products  worth  £2000 
(the  cost  of  this  second  supply)  and  intimated  that,  if 
profits  were  not  soon  reaUzed,  the  colony  would  be  aban- 
doned, since  the  discouraged  stockholders  were  withdraw- 
ing their  pledges.  Newport  carried  with  him  eight  skilled 
artisans,  and  these  men  got  together  some  tar,  pitch  glass, 
and  iron  ore.  These  commodities,  together  with  clapboards 
cut  by  the  colonists  "  for  their  exercise  at  leisure  times, 
made  up  the  first  return  cargo  from  Virgima. 

The  colony  sent  to  Sagadahoc  on  the  Kennebec  River 
by  the  Plymouth  Company,  in  1606,  set  out  under  brilliant 
,      .  auspices.     It  was  planned  by  Lord  John  Popham   Chief 

nn'-iyy.    Justice  of  England,  and  officered  by  his  brother,  George 
Osgood.  Popham,  and  his  nephew,  Ralegh  Gilbert      The  rank  and 

file  of  the  settlers,  however,  were  rough,  wild  fellows  picked 
up  in  the  seaports,  who  had  Uttle  ability  and  less  inclina- 
tion for  hard  work.    The  summer  season  was  wasted  m 
exploring  expeditions,  and  the  friendship  of  the  Indians 
was  forfeited  through  wanton  cruelty.     Winter  found  the 
colonists  unprepared,  and  they  could  get  neither  corn  nor 
furs  from  the  outraged  natives.    Popham  died,  and  the 
colony  was  so  reduced  by  disease  and  starvaUon  that 
when  the  supply  ship  arrived  in  the  spring,  the  men  would 
hear  of  nothing  but  immediate  return  to  England      They 
carried  home  an  evil  report  of  the  land  where   they  had 
suffered  so  much  hardship,  and  the  Plymouth  Company, 
disheartened  by  this  costly  experiment,  planted   no  more 
colonies  at  its  own  expense. 

These  failures  on  the  part  of  the  chartered  compames 
are  not  to  be  regretted.  The  English  settlements  might 
have  been  mere  trading  posts  dependent  on  the  good  will 
of  a  merchant  company  like  the  Dutch  colonies  on  the 
Hudson  but  for  the  fortunate  circumstance  that  the  first 
ventures  were  unsuccessful  and  returned  no  profit  on  the 
investment.  The  stockholders  became  discouraged,  the 
managers  got  into  trouble  with  the  government,  and  the 
charters  were  withdrawn,  that  of  the  London  Company  m 
1624  that  of  the  Council  for  New  England  eleven  years  after. 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  27 

Associations    of    Adventurers.  —  Later    colonies    were 
financed  by  private  associations,  each  of  which  secured 
a  cliarfer~gtvihg  tftle  to  a  definite  strip  of  territory  and 
more  or  less  adequate  political  control  of  the  projected 
settlements.     The  first  successful  settlement  within  the 
domain  of  the  Plymouth  Company  was  made  by  a  group 
of  Separatists  w^ho,  finding  the  England  of  James  I  a  difficult 
place  to  live  in,  sought  to  establish  a  government  more  to 
their  liking  in  the  New  World.     The  seventy  London 
merchants  who  financed  this  enterprise  subscribed  £10 
each  and  made  careful  provision  for  a  money  return.     In 
the   articles   of   agreement   between   the   associated   ad- 
venturers and  the  planters  of  Plymouth,  it  was  stipulated 
that  the  parties  to  the  contract  were  to  "  continue  their 
joynt  stock  &  partnership  togeather,  y^  space  of  7  years, 
.  .  .  during  which  time,  all  profits  &  benifits  that  are 
gott  by  trade  ...  or  any  other  means  of  any  person  or 
persons  remaine  still  in  the  coiiione  stock."     The  planters 
were  to  labor  on  the  common  fields  for  the  common  good. 
It  was  hoped  that  a  considerable  revenue  would  be  realized, 
if  not  from  actual  products,  then  from  the  profits  of  trade. 
For  several  years,  however,  the  colony  was  hardly  more 
than   self-sustaining.     The  Pilgrim   Fathers   relished,   no 
more  than  the  "  vagabond  gentlemen  "  of  Virginia,  toil 
that  did  not  result  in  immediate  personal  gain.     In  1624 
the  scheme  was  abandoned,  and  every  man  was  given  one 
acre  of  land  where  he  might  "  set  corn  for  his  own  partic- 
ular."   Thereafter    there  was  plenty  of   food;    but    the 
adventurers  wanted  marketable  goods ,  and  their  exactions 
proved  so  annoying  to  the  planters  that  the  agreement 
was  dissolved  (1627).     The  colony  undertook  to  buy  up 
the  interests  of  the  stockholders  for  £1800  to  be  paid  in 
yearly  ihstaUments  of  £200  each.     Certain  leading  men, 
Bradford^ WinsloBf,  Standish,  Brewster,  and  others,  be- 
came responsible  for  the  fulfillment  of  this  pledge. 

In  the  case  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  the  ad- 
venturers went  in  person  to  America,  carrying  their  charter 
with  them,  and  thus  the  association  became  identified  with 


Osgood, 
I,  Pt.  I, 
Ch.  V. 

Tyler, 
Ch.  IX,  X. 


Bradford, 
History  "of 
Plimoth 
Plantation," 
56-58,  162- 
166,  176-178. 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I.  33-35- 


i 


OMTOod, 
1,  141-152. 


Tyler, 

Ch.  XI,  XII. 

Egleston, 
Land  System 
of  New 
England 
Colonies. 


Tyler, 
Ch.  XIV, 
XV. 


Lucas, 
87-123. 


Osgood, 
II,  Pt.  Ill, 
Ch.  L 


28        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  colony.  Every  stockholder  was  entitled  to  a  voice  in 
the  management  of  the  company's  affairs  and  attended  in 
person  the  stockholders'  meeting,  known  as  the  General 
Court,  until  the  increase  in  the  number  of  settlements 
necessitated  the  election  of  representatives.  The  charter 
secured  a  grant  of  land  extending  from  the  Merrimac 
.Biver JtQ-the  ^Plymouth  hne,  and  from ' '  sea  to  sea. "  Within 
this  territory  new  colonies  were  planted  from  time  to  time 
on  lands  granted  free  of  charge  by  the  General  Court. 
Ipswich,  Newbury,  Charlestown,  Dedham,  and  the  Con- 
necticut River  towns,  Hadley,  Hatfield,  and  Northamp)ton, 
were  offshoots  from  the  parent  colony  and  followed  each 
in  turn  the  same  general  plan.  The  settlers  joined  forces 
for  the  prosecution  of  undertakings  that  were  too  great 
for  individual  initiative,  such  as  the  clearing  of  the  forest, 
the  cultivation  of  the  first  crops,  the  putting  uj)  of  houses, 
barns,  fences,  sawmills,  gristmills,  etc.,  and  as  soon  as 
practicable  each  of  the  proprietors  in  the  common  lands 
was  assigned  his  portion  and  proceeded  to  cultivate  on  his 
own  account.  This  was  not  communism  but  cooperation. 
Providence  Plantations  and  the  Connecticut  towns  were 
also  indep)endent  ventures  financed  by  the  planters  them- 
selves. Being  imder  no  obligation  to  pay  tribute  to  a  body 
of  adventurers  in  England,  the  colonies  grew  rapidly  in 
population  and  wealth.  By  1700  New  England,  despite 
her  natural  disadvantages,  was  the  most  densely  settled 
province  in  America. 

Proprietary  Grants.  —  It  was  not  unusual  for  private 
persons  with  sufficient  means  to  secure  a  grant  of  land  and 
undertake  the  planting  of  a  colony  as  one  might  set  about 
the  cultivation  of  a  distant  estate.  Such  colonial  enter- 
prises were  feudal  in  character.  The  undertaker  owned  the 
land  and  met  the  expenses  of  the  shiploads  of  laborers  sent 
out  to  develop  its  resources  and  was,  in  consequence, 
entitled  to  whatever  revenues  in  the  way  of  rents,  and 
receipts  from  mines  or  from  customs  duties  might  accrue. 

Sir  Fernando  Gorges,  a  friend  of  Sir  Walter  Ralegh, 
despairing  of  success  through  company  management,  se- 


THE  ORlOrlNAlL  GRANTS 

SCALE  OF  MILES 

fiO     100 


' 


|! 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  29 

cured,  together  with  John  Mason,  another  member  of  the 
Council,  the  Laconia  grant  (1623).  The  Council  bestowed 
upon  these  gentlemen  the  exclusive  right  to  plant  settle- 
ments along  the  coast  between  the  Kennebec  and  Merrimac 
rivers  and  the  monopoly  of  fisheries  and  trade.  A  fishing 
station  was  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscataqua 
River,  and  salt  works  were  there  set  up.  Salt,  dried  fish, 
furs  secured  in  trade  with  the  Indians,  clapboards  and 
pipestaves,  made  up  the  returns  from  this  venture;  but 
the  cost  of  maintaining  the  colony  exceeded  the  income. 
The  workmen  sent  out  were  fishmongers  from  Billingsgate 
"  hired  at  extreme  rates,"  a  thriftless  and  lawless  crew, 
who  lived  extravagantly  and  worked  only  under  compulsion. 
In  1629  the  grant  was  divided.  Gorges  acquiring  control 
of  the  territory  between  the  Piscataqua  and  the  Kennebec 
under  the  title  of  Lord  Proprietor  of  Maine,  and  the  lands 
south  of  the  Piscataqua  being  awarded  to  Mason.  Neither 
proprietor  did  much  toward  the  actual  colonization  of  his 
territory. 

In  1632  the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  who  as  member  of 

the  London  Company  had  made  a  futile  attempt  to  found 

a  colony  in  Virginia,  obtained  from  the  king  a   charter 

making  him  sole  proprietor  of  the  territory  lying  between 

the  Potomac  River  and  the  fortieth  parallel.      His  son 

Cecil  'succeeded  to  the  title  that  same  year  and  became 

Lord  Proprietor  of  Maryland.     Twenty    gentlemen  and 

three  hundred  laboring  men,  well  stocked  with  provisions, 

undertook  the  first  settlement  in  1633.     Lord  Baltimore 

gave  careful  attention  to  the  welfare  of  his  colony  and 

expended  £20,000  out  of  his  own  purse  in    forwarding 

supplies.     The  climate  was  genial  and  the  soil  rich.     The 

cultivators  were  soon  able  to  send  corn  to  New  England 

in  exchange  for  salt  fish,  and  the  hogs  and  cattle  procured 

from  Virginia  flourished.    Religious  toleration  offset  the 

disadvantages  of  feudal  government  in  the  minds  of  Roman 

Catholics,  Quakers,  and  other  dissenters,  for  whom  there 

was  no  place  in  Old  or  New  England,  and  the  colony  was 

augmented  by  self-supporting  emigrants. 


-^. 


■^ «. 

Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
III,  295-310, 
326-330,  366, 
367- 

Osgood, 
I,  Pt.  II, 
Ch.  IX. 


'»•<'/-' 


Winsor,      ^■tr\4 
Narr.  and  /S^  i  ^. 
Crit.  Hist.     '     '  '  *' 
America, 
III,  517-525- 

Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

I,  Ch.  VIII; 

II,  Ch.  XIIL 


iTyler, 
!ch.VII,VIIL 


Andrews, 
Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.  IX,  X. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
V,  Ch.  V. 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

n,  Ch.  XV. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
HI,  421-422. 

Andrews, 
Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.  V,  VI. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
III,  422-449 


30        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

A  batch  of  proprietaries  dates  from  the  Restoration. 
Charles  II  was  bent  on  asserting  the  royal  prerogative 
ii^tonly  in  England  but  in  America  as  well.    The  unclaimed 
territory  afFordedx opportunity  for  rewarding   his  friends 
and  supporters,  andShe  gave  out  patents^with  ajavish 
hand.     The  coast  country  south  of  Virginia  to  the  twenty- 
ninth  paraUel  was  granted  to  a  group  of  loyal  noblemen, 
the  Earl  of  Clarendon,  the  Duke  of  Albemarle,  Lord  John 
Berkeley,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  Sir  John    Carteret,  and 
others  (1668).    These  gentlemen,  with  the  assistance  of 
John  Locke,   the  philosopher,  proceeded   to  draw  up  a 
feudal  form  of  government  for  the  Carol inas  while  promis- 
ing liberal  terms  in  the  way  of   lands,  trade  privileges, 
and  reirgious  freedom  to  voluntary  immigrants.      Some 
persecuted  Quakers  did  indeed  move  across  the  Virginia 
boundary,  and  enterprising  Yankees  from  Massachusetts 
came  down  to  prosecute  trade,  but  the  government  of 
the  proprietors  was  so  tyrannical  and  inefficient  that  there 
was  no  security  for  life  or  property.     The_Carolhias  did 
not  prosper  untU  a^tabje  CTOwn  government  was_estab- 

lished  (1720).  ,        T^. 

In  1664  England's  shadowy  title  to  the  Hudson  River 
territory  was  vested  in  the  Duke  of  York  by  charter  from 
the  king.  The  fleet  sent  to  besiege  New  Amsterdam  had 
Uttle  difficulty  in  enforcing  the  claim,  and  New  Netherland 
became  New  York.  NicoUs,  the  governor,  sent  out  to 
represent  the  royal  proi)rietor,  made  inquiry  into  the  laws 
that  had  been  adopted  by  the  New  England  colonists  and 
modeled  his  government  thereon.  The  Dutch  settlers 
were  glad  to  remain  under  the  liberal  English  rule,  and  Con- 
,    necticut  farmers  came  in  to  take  up  the  fruitful  lands  on 

Long  Island. 

The  fertile  stretch  of  territory  between  the  Delware 
River  and  the  sea,  the  Duke  of  York  sold  (1664)  to  his 
friends,  Lord  Berkeley  and  the  Carterets.  In  the  Jerseys, 
as  in  the  Carolinas,  the  proprietors,  lacking  funds  with 
which  to  stock  a  colony,  offered  liberal  terms  to  settlers 
who  should  meet  their  own  expenses.    The   vacant  land 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  31 

was  quickly  taken  up  by  English,  Dutch,  and  Swedish 
farmers. 

Very  different  in  origin  were  the  last  two  proprietorships. 
In  1 68 1  the  unoccupied  land  west  of  the  Delaware  River 
and  between  the  fortieth  and  forty-second  parallels  was 
granted_by__the-speiidthrift  Charles  II,  in  satisffirtion  of 
an  old  debt,  to  William  Penn,  the  Quaker  philanthropist. 
In  this  case  the  proprietor  came  in  person  to  America. 
He  refused  to  establish  a  trade  monopoly,  considering  the 
prosperity  of  the  colony  more  important  than  money 
gain.  "  I  am  day  and  night  spending  my  life,  my  time, 
my  money,  and  am  not  a  sixpence  enriched  by  this  great- 
ness. .  .  .  Had  I  sought  greatness,  I  had  stayed  at  home." 
Representative  government,  liberal  laws,  and  full  owner- 
ship in  the  soil  proved  adequate  inducements  to  immi- 
grants. The  City  of  Brotherly  Love  sprang  up  at  the 
junction  of  the  Delaware  and  Schuylkill,  a  location  selected 
by  the  wise  proprietor  as  suitable  ""  for  health  and  navi- 
gation." 

Fifty  years  later  the  part  of  JZ!arolina  that  lies  between 
the  Savannah  and  Altamaha" rivers,  having  been  sur- 
rendefed  to  the  Crown  by  the  original  proprietors,  was 
granted  by  George  I  to  a  group  of  philanthropists  who 
proposed  to  give  opportunity  to  prisoners  for  debt  to 
make  a  fresh  start  in  life.  Oglethorpe  and  his  associates 
were  constituted  "  trustees  for  establishing  the  colony  of 
Georgia  "  and  were  made  responsible  for  the  conduct  of 
its  affairs  for  a  term  of  twenty-one  years.  A  corporation 
was  organized  for  the  financing  of  this  latest  colony,  but 
with  no  thought  of  gain.  Its  stock  was  subscribed  by 
benevolent  individuals,  churches,  and  trade  guilds,  while 
Parliament  appropriated  £10,000  toward  the  humane 
enterprise.  The  colonists  were  brought  over  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  corporation  and  provided  for  during  the 
initial  years  until  they  had  secured  a  firm  footing.  In 
1 75 1  Georgia  became  a  crown  province. 

The  success  of  the  proprietary  colonies  varied  with  the 
wisdom  and  zeal  of  the  persons  responsible  for  their  man- 


Andrews, 

Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.VII,Vni 

Fiske, 
The  Dutch 
and  Quaker      t 
Colonies. 

II,  Ch.  XII, 
XVI. 

Andrews, 
Colonial 
Self-Gov- 
ernment, 
Ch.  XI,  XII. 

Buell, 

William 

Penn. 

Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 

III,  476-495. 

Wiasor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
V,  361-392 


Greene, 
Provincial 
America, 
Ch.  XV. 


I 


Osgood, 
I,  73-79- 


Bruce, 
Economic 
History  of 
Virginia,    _ 
I,  227,  502- 
506, 


L 


32        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

agement.  These  experiments,  no  less  than  the  chartered 
companies,  proved  that  no  money  return  could  be  ex- 
pected from  American  investments  and  that  the  economic 
advantages  to  be  derived  from  colonies  were  remote  and 
indirect.  All  the  proprietary  rights  except  those  of  the 
Penns  and  the  Calverts  had  lapsed  to  the  Crown  before 
the  Revolution,  and  the  several  governments  were  ad- 
ministered by  royal  appointees  and  assemblies  represent- 
ing the  interests  of  the  colonists. 

Land  Tenure 

The  prime  concern  with  the  founders  of  a  colony,  whether 
chartered  company,  proprietor,  or  association  of  ad- 
venturers, was  to  induce  people  to  migrate  to  America; 
for  without  laborers  nothing  of  commercial  value  could  be 
produced.  The  managers  of  the  several  colonial  enter- 
prises, however  aristocratic  their  original  plans,  became 
convinced  by  actual  experiment  that  it  was  good  policy 
to  put  bona  fide  settlers  in  immediate  possession  of  the 
land.  Nothing  short  of  actual  ownership  in  the  soil 
sufl&ced  to  attract  and  hold  immigrants. 

In  Virginia,  for  example,  the  purpose  of  the  company 
to  retain  possession  of  the  land  and  get  it  cultivated  by 
laborers  or  tenants  gave  way  before  the  necessity  of  offer- 
ing the  highest  inducement  to  effective  tillage.     Sir  Thomas 
Dale  assigned  a  three-acre  garden  lot  to  each  of  the  com- 
pany's servants  and  offered  twelve  acres  of  uncleared  land 
to  all  newcomers ;    but    the   cultivators    remained  mere 
tenants  at  will.    The  House  of  Burgesses  in  its  first  session 
(1619)  demanded  that  the  colonists  be  put  in  full  posses- 
sion of  these  lands,  and  that  eveQ^resident  shareholder_be 
r  allotted  one  hundred  acres_in  lee  _simple  i.Qr   each_ihare 
(£12  I05.)  he  had  contributed  to  the  common  stock,  and 
this  was  conceded.     Associations  of  adventurers  proposing 
to  go  in  person  to  Virginia  secured  grants  of  land  from  the 
London  Company  until  1624,  and,  after  that   "  hot-bed 
of  sedition  "  forfeited  its  charter  and  Virginia  became  a 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonisation  33 

royal  province,  from  the  Crown  direct.  Since  each  stock- 
holder was  entitled  to  one  hundred  acres  in  the  first 
"  division  "  and  one  hundred  more  when  the  grant  had 
been  "  seated,"  these  associations  came  into  possession  of 
great  tracts  of  land.  John^artin^  one  of  the  first  council- 
lors, who  organized  the  company  that  settled  Martin's 
Hundred  on  the  James  River,  secured  for  himself  and 
associates  eighty  thousand  acres.  Other  grants  hardly 
lesr~extensive  were  assigned  to  the  planters  of  Smith's 
Hundred,  Southampton  Hundred,  Bermuda  Hundred,  etc. 
Individual  planters  might  increase  their  estates  by  the 
title  known  as  ''head  right."  Every  shareholder  who  met 
the  cost  of  importing  an  able-bodied  laborer,  man  or 
woman,  was  entitled  to  fifty  acres  in  the  first  division 
and  fifty  additional  in  the  second.  The  right  was  soon 
extended  to  all  residents  of  Virginia  and  became  the  usual 
method  of  acquiring  land.  Since  the  transportation  charges 
amounted  to  £6,  the  land  came  to  little  more  than  a 
shilling  an  acre.  Moreover,  the  imported  laborer  was  usu- 
ally under  contract  to  repay  the  passage  money  in  service. 
Thus,  by  a  moderate  outlay,  the  planter  secured  an  estate 
and  the  hands  with  which  to  till  it.  The  custom  was  ad- 
mirably suited  to  a  country  where  land  was  abundant 
and  labor  scarce,  but  it  was  susceptible  of  abuse.  Un- 
scrupulous planters  obtained  grants  in  consideration  of 
passage  money  paid  for  members  of  their  families  or  for 
their  own  journeys  to  and  from  England.  The  land  oflSces 
grew  corrupt,  and  soon  it  was  not  required  to  bring  evi- 
dence of  passage  paid.  A  small  fee  handed  to  the  secretary 
insured  the  solicited  grant  with  no  questions  asked.  This 
practice  became  so  general  that  it  was  finally  (1705) 
sanctioned  by  law.  Fifty  acres  might  be  had  for  five 
shillings,  on  condition  that  a  house  be  built  and  three  acres 
planted  within  three  years  and  a  suitable  number  of  cattle 
maintained.  The  result  was  a  significant  increase  in  the 
size  of  the  holdings.  In  1625  a  shareholder  was  entitled 
to  one  hundred  acres  and  had  expectations  of  a  second 
hundred,  while  at  the  close  of  the  century  the  average  size 


55^"  't^^-x^ 


Bruce,  1, 
512-S18. 

Osgood, 
II,  Pt.  Ill, 
Ch  II. 


Beverley, 
History  of 
Virginia, 
Bk.  IV, 
Ch.  XII. 


Bruce, 
I,  5 19-564. 

1 


1 


^  li^Ci 


34        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  35 

of  a  Virginia  estate  was^  seven  hundred  ac|es^  and  many 
a  planter  owned  thousands.  The  king  was  recognized 
as  the  ultimate  proprietor  of  all  lands  in  the  Virginia 
colony,  and  the  immediate  owners  paid  a  quitrent  of  a 
farthing  an  acre.  This  was  an  important  source  of  revenue 
urgently  maintained  by  the  crown  officers  and  as  urgently 
protested  by  the  planters. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  land  systeiiLof  Virginia  was 
that  of  New  England  colonies.    The  people  who  put  their 
Hves  into  the  planting  of  Plymouth  colony  were  credited 
with  a  share  in  the  venture.     Each  colonist,  whether  man, 
woman,  or  child,  free  citizen  or  servant,  was  entitled  to 
a  £10  share  of  stock,  and  every  shareholder  received  full 
possession  of  twenty  acres  of  land  when  the  first  division 
was  made.     At  Salem  each  of  the  original  settlers  was 
entitled  to  a  house  lot  in  the  village,  ten  acres  of  arable 
land,  and  rights  of  pasturage  and  mowing  in  the  meadows 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  cattle  owned.     The  pro- 
jectors of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  agreed  that  every 
adventurer  who  went  to  the  settlement  or  sent  others  at 
his  own  charge,  was  to  have  fifty  acres  for  each  passage 
paid.     This  provision  did  not  lead  to  the  building  up  of 
great  estates,  as  m  Virginia,  because  the  arable  lands  were 
limited  in  area  and  there  were  always  newcomers  to  pro- 
vide for.     Soil  and  climate,  moreover,  were  not  such  as  to 
encourage  farming  on  a  large  scale.    The  settlers  preferred 
to  hve  near  together,  and  the  house  lots  were  usually 
assigned  along  a  single  street  with- garden  ground  at  the 
back,  while  the  arable,  meadow,  and  wood  land  was  not 
divided  until  the  community  grew  strong  enough  to  build 
fences  and  to  protect  distant  fields  .against  Indian  raids. 
In  all  the  settlements  made  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Massachusetts   Bay   Company   this   plan   was   followed, 
though  the  size  of  the  allotments  varied  with  the  amount 
of  land  at  the  disposal  of  the  town  and  the  number  of 
proprietors  among  whom  it  was  to  be  divided.    Settlers 
in  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire  adopted 
the  Massachusetts  model.    The  planters  of  New  England 


^*-t3Plt 


AtJL/iAAn^ 


Ripley, 
Financial 
History  of 
Virginia, 
Ch.  II. 


Bradford, 

56-58, 

163-166. 

Works  of 
Captain 
John  Smith, 
782-784. 

Adams, 
Village 
Communities 
of  Cape  Ann 
and  Salem. 


y. 


Osgood, 
1,  Pt.  II. 
Ch.  XI. 


Doc.  Hist, 
of  New  York, 

I  377-389 ; 
III,  622-627. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  104,  109, 
1 1 8- 1 20; 
128,  129. 


Osgood, 

n,  Pt.  Ill, 

Ch.  II. 


36        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

were  everywhere  small  farmers,  dwelling  near  together  in 
villages  or  towns,  each  possessing  his  land  in  fee  simple 
and  cultivating  it  with  his  own  hands.  Taxes  sufficient 
to  meet  local  expenses  were  assessed  by  the  town  authorities, 
but  nothing  in  the  nature  of  quitrent  was  required  by  the 

General  Court. 

In  the  royal  province  of  New  York,  the  feudal  form  of 
land  tenure  introduced  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Com- 
pany influenced  later  developments.     Great  estates  such 
as  Rennslaervyck  persisted  under  the  English  rule.     Some 
of  the  royal  governors  granted  tracts  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  acres  to  favored  individuals,  and  feudal  properties 
like  Livingston  Manor  were  created.     The  practice  was 
protested,  since  it  seriously  retarded  the  settlement   of 
the  province.    "  The  Grantees  themselves  are  not,  nor  never 
were  in  a  Capacity  to  improve  such  large  Tracts,  and  other 
People  will  not  become  their  Vassals  or  Tenants  for  one 
great  reason  as  peoples  (the  better  sort  especially)  leaving 
their  native  Country,  was  to  avoid  the  dependence  on  land- 
lords, and  to  enjoy  lands  in  fee  to  descend  to  their  posterity 
that  their  children  may  reap  the  benefit  of  their  labor  and 
Industry."  The  development  of  the  province  was  retarded, 
since  immigrants  preferred  going  to  New  Englmd,  where 
lands  might  be  had  in  fee  simple  and  without  charge. 
When  by  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  (1768),  the  Mohawk 
Valley  was  purchased  of  the  Iroquois  Confederacy,  land 
offices  were  opened  and  farms  were  made  over  in  fee  simple 
to  actual  settlers  on  the  easy  condition  that  five  acres  out 
of  fifty  should  be  cleared  within  three  years. 

The  proprietors  held  their  respective  territories  as  so 
many  feudal  estates  from  which  they  were  at  liberty  to 
grant,  sell,  or  lease  lands  as  might  best  suit  their  purposes 
Even  William  Penn  had  in  mind  an  aristocratic  form  of 
land  tenure.  He  offered  to  sell  five-thousand-acre  tracts 
for  £100,  allowing  fifty  acres  free  for  each  servant  imported, 
but  reser^^ed  a  quitrent  of  one  shilling  per  hundred  acres. 
A  tract  of  five  hundred  acres  was  awarded  to  every  man 
who  should  transport  and  "  seat "  his  family  at  his  own 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  37 

charge.    Here  was  abundant  opportunity  for  the  acqui-  American 
sition  of  large  estates,  but  here,  as  in  Massachusetts  and  ^^^^^^f^^ 
New  York,  physical  conditions  were  not  favorable  to  great  /gg. 
plantations,  for  soil  and  climate  necessitated  a  varied  and 
intensive  agriculture.     Large  tracts  of  land  were  bought  I 
by  groups  of  settlers,  English,  Welsh,  or  German,  and  then  , 
subdivided  among  the  partners  to  the  purchase.     The 
result  was  a  series  of  agricultural  communities  of  an  es- 
pecially democratic  type. 

With  a  view  to  attracting  settlers,  the  proprietors  of 
^  Jerseys  offered  to  every  man  who,  already  equipped 
with  musket  and  ammunition  and  six  months'  provisions, 

should  meet  the  governor  on  his  arrival,  one  hundred  and ^ 

fif ty^acres  of  land,  and  a  like  amount  for  each  servant  qc, 

slave  imported  and  similarly  provided  at  his  own  expense, 

while  the  allowance  for  women  was  seventy-five  acres. 

This  offer  drew  settlers  from  the  adjacent  colony  of  New  Docs.  Col. 

York.     "  What  man,"  wrote  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  "  will  JJ^^"  °^^^^^ 

be  such  a  fool  as  to  become  a  base  tenant  to  .  .  .  Mr. 

Livingston  .  .  .  whenforcrossingHudson's  River  that  man 

can  for  a  song  purchase  a  good  freehold  in  the  Jerseys?  " 

The  colonial  population  of  New  Jersey  was  almost  wholly 

made  up  of  small  farmers  and  their  families. 

South  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  both  phvsic; 
dTtions  and  the  terms  on  which  land  was  grgiit^tendeci  to  ^^^    ' 
develop' large  estates.     The  soil  of  the  coastal  plain  lay  institutions 
m  broadlertile  tracts,  and  the  climate  was  suited  to  staple  of^Maryland. 
crops,  such  as  corn,  tobacco,  rice,  and  cotton.     There  was  ^  ^  ' 
considerable  economy  in  cultivation  on  a  large  scale,  and 
the  small  farmer  was  at  a  disadvantage.     In  the  Conditions 
of  Plantations   (1636)   Lord  Baltimore  offered  each  ad- 
venturer who  should  transport  five  settlers  a  grant  of  one 
thousand  acres  in  perpetuity,  subject  only  to  a  quitrent 
of^o5.  per  year.    Adventurers  bringing  over  a  greater 
number  of  laborers,  especially  when  the  men  were  ''  artifi- 
cers, workmen,  and  other  useful  persons,"  received  larger 
grants,  so  that  some  of  these  estates  amounted  to  ten  or   W 
fifteen  thousand  acres.    The  intention  of  the  proprietor 


IV.  791. 


r^ 


I 


I 


II 


.^ 

1 

11 

1 

38        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

was  to  create  manors   after  the  mediaeval  type.    Each 
adventurer  sublet  his  lands  to  the  men  whom  he  brought 
over,  and  these,  like  feudal  dependents,  paid  rent  in  money 
or  produce  and  presented  themselves  at  the  call  of  the 
lord  of  the  manor  fully  equipped  with  muskets,  powder, 
and  bullets  for  service  against  the  Indians.     Sixty  su^ 
■manors  of  three  thousand  acres  each  were  established  by 
7^     The  proprietor  also  made  provision  for  peasant 
farmers  in  freehold  grants.     To  any  man  who  should  meet 
the  cost  of  transporting  his  family  to  Maryland  was  as- 
signed one  hundred  acres  for  himself,  for  his  wife,  and  for 
each  servant  imported,   and  ftfty  acres  for  each  child. 
Such  freemen  were  to  pay  rent  at  the  rate  of  ten  pounds 
of  wheat  for  every  fifty  acres  taken  up.     In  the  fertile 
lowlands  the  great  estate  proved  so  profitable  that  farmers 
who  took  up  land  on  these  terms  were  crowded  out. 

In  the  Great  Deed  of  Grant  issued  by  the  proprietors 
of  Carolina  (1668)  every  freeman  settUng  in  the  country 
was  offered  one  hundred  acres  for  himself,  his  wife,  each 
child,  and  for  every  man-servant  imported,  and  fifty  acres 
for  each  woman  servant,  subject  to  a  quitrent  charge  of 
half-penny  per  acre.    The  philanthropic  directors  of  the 
Georgia  colony  assigned  to  each  settler  brought  over  fifty 
acres'^  of  land  and  tools  with  which  to  cultivate  it.    In 
both  of  these  colonies  the  intention  of  the  projectors  had 
been  to  induce  farmers  to  take  up  the  land  in  tracts  com- 
mensurate with  their  working  force.     The  influence  of 
climate  and  agricultural  conditions  proved  more  potent 
than  their  carefully  devised  plans.     The_government  was 
,    obliged  to  concede  the  Virginia  methodofjicqmring  land, 
and  grearestates  secured  by"  jead  rigHTbecam^jhe  rule 
throughouT  the  SouthefiTHIIonies. 

The  Colonists 

The  subduing  of  the  wilderness  was  no  pastime.  Stren- 
uous labor  was  required  to  fell  the  trees,  plow  lands  beset 
with  stumps  and  stones,  protect  growing  crops  against 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  39 

weeds  and  cattle,  build  houses  and  barns,  cut  roads  through 
the  forests,  and  defend  the  little  settlements  against  hostile 
Indians.  Only  men  of  strength,  courage,  and  industry 
could  succeed. 

The  fifty  spendthrift  gentlemen  who  came  to  Jamestown 
with  Captain  Newport  knew  nothing  of  agriculture  or  of 
any  other  useful  art.  They  had  no  inclination  to  the 
prosaic  task  of  providing  food  and  shelter,  and  were  in- 
fatuated with  the  hope  of  finding  some  easier  road  to  fortune. 
There  was  among  them,  says  Captain  John  Smith,  "  no 
talke,  no  hope,  nor  worke,  but  dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine 
gold,  load  gold."  Even  when  the  shipload  of  shining  earth 
sent  over  to  England  was  declared  to  be  worthless,  and  the 
"  gold-showing  mountains  "  proved  to  be  hills  of  common 
red  clay,  it  was  not  easy  to  induce  the  visionary  adventurers 
to  undertake  useful  employments.  This  futile  experi- 
ment proved  the  necessity  of  sending  out  men  who  were 
able  and  willing  to  labor  with  hand  or  brain.  In  16 10 
the  Council  in  Virginia  reported  to  the  London  Company 
that  they  must  have  at  least  a  year's  provisions  supplied 
them  and  laborers  adequate  to  this  difficult  business. 
None  but  "  honest,  sufiicient  artificers,  as  carpenters, 
smiths,  coopers,  fishermen,  brickmen,  and  such  like,"  were 
desired. 

The  men  who  settled  Plymouth  suffered  terribly  in  their 
first  winter.  Half  of  their  number  died  of  cold  and  scurvy 
—  the  major  part  adult  men.  When  the  spring  came  they 
set  about  planting  corn,  catching  fish,  and  building  houses 
that  they  might  be  well  provided  against  the  second  winter. 
The  Pilgrims  were  men  of  the  middle  and  artisan  classes, 
accustomed  to  work,  and,  though  they  knew  Httle  of 
agriculture,  they  readily  adapted  themselves  to  the  new 
conditions.  Moreover,  they  had  come  to  America  in  no 
venturesome  spirit.  Driven  from  England  by  religious 
intolerance,  they  brought  their  wives  and  children  and 
household  goods  with  full  determination  to  build  homes 
in  the  New  World. 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  sober  industry  of  the  Pil- 


Works  of 
Captain 
John  Smith, 
104. 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 
I,  410,  439. 


Bradford, 
III,  121,  137, 
151,  152- 


1 1 

■ 

I 


I 


I 


» 


i 

I 


Osgood, 
I,  1 14-122. 

Bradford, 

137-151. 
iS4-i6x. 


Bradford, 
178-184. 


Bradford, 
283-292. 


40        htdustrial  History  of  the  United  States 

grims  and  their  eventual  success  showed  the  braggart 
thriftlessness  of  three  neighboring  settlements.  Thomas 
Weston,  one  of  the  merchant  adventurers  of  the  Council 
for  New  England,  equipped  a  colony  on  his  own  account, 
having  secured  a  patent  to  lands  in  Massachusetts  Bay. 
A  settlement  was  attempted  at  Weymouth  (1622),  but 
the  men  sent  over  were  an  "  unruly  company  "  who  "  spent 
excessively  "  while  the  ship's  stores  lasted  and  then  begged 
and  stole  from  the  Indians  until  the  exasperated  savages 
determined  to  destroy  the  camp.  The  settlement  was 
only  saved  from  annihilation  by  Captain  Miles  Standish 
of  Plymouth,  who  marched  to  Weymouth  with  his  little 
force,  overawed  the  Indians,  and  enabled  the  disheartened 
rowdies  to  get  away.  Weston's  colonists  had  laughed  at 
the  straits  to  which  they  saw  the  Pilgrims  reduced,  handi- 
capped as  they  were  by  women  and  children,  and  had 
boasted  of  their  own  advantage  in  being  all  lusty  men. 
They  did  not  understand  how  essential  to  a  settlement  was 
the  steadying  responsibility  of  the   family  claim. 

Equally  unfortunate  was  the  enterprise  of  Robert  Gor- 
ges, who  came  to  Weymouth  in  the  following  year.  Sir 
Fernando  sent  his  younger  son  clothed  with  great  authority. 
He  had  received  an  extensive  grant  of  land  and  the  com- 
mission of  governor-general  for  all  New  England,  but  a 
year's  experience  of  the  hardships  of  piom^er  life  dis- 
couraged this  luxurious  gentleman.  "  Not  finding  the 
state  of  things  hear  to  answer  his  quallitie  &  condition," 
says  Bradford,  he  returned  to  England  in  disgust.  No 
less  disheartening  was  the  attempt  of  another  repre- 
sentative of  Sir  Fernando,  Thomas  Morton  "  of  Clifford's 
Inn,  Gent."  to  found  a  colony  at  Mount  Wollaston.  His 
people  were  runaway  servants  and  other  ne'er-do-weels, 
who  spent  their  time  in  drinking  and  riot  to  the  great  an- 
noyance of  the  men  of  Plymouth.  The  merrymakers  at 
Merrymount  may  not  have  been  so  disreputable  as  the 
Pilgrims  believed,  but  their  practice  of  selling  rum  and 
firearms  to  the  Indians  menaced  the  safety  of  all  the 
neighboring  settlements.     Plymouth  was  constrained  to 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colojiization  41 

send  her  little  army  and  "prevent  the  growth  of  this 
mischief,"  so  that  Morton  was  arrested  and  sent  back  to 
England  and  his  dissolute  company  dispersed.    John  White,   White, 
the  Dorchester  clergyman  who  was  laying  wise  plans  for  '^^^  Planter's 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  pointed  out   that  such   ^^^^" 
"  rude  and  ungovernable  persons,  the  very  scum  of  the 
land,  were  unfit  instruments  for  the  planting  of  a  com- 
monwealth." 

Lord  Bacon,  who  was  deeply  interested  in  the  London  Bacon's 
Company's  experiment,  echoed  this  protest  in  his  Essay  Works, 
on  Plantations  (1625).     "  It  is  a  shameful  and  unblessed  ^^'  45^- 
thing  to  take  the  scum  of  people,  and  wicked  and  con- 
demned men,  to  be  the  people  with  whom  you  plant ;  and 
not  only  so  but  it  spoileth  the  plantation ;   for  they  will 
ever  live  like  rogues,  and  not  fall  to  work,  but  be  lazy,  and 
do  mischief,  and  spend  victuals,  and  be  quickly  weary, 
and  then  certify  over  to  their  country  to  the  discredit  of 
the  plantation.     The  people  wherewith  you  plant  ought 
to  be   gardeners,  plowmen,  laborers,  smiths,  carpenters, 
joiners,  fishermen,  fowlers,  with  some  few  apothecaries, 
surgeons,  cooks,  and  bakers." 

The  Labor  Supply  "^^ 

The  most  serious  problem  encountered  by  landowners  Weeden, 
was  the  difficulty  of  securing  a  sufficient  force  of  laborers.   ^*^«"-  ^oc. 
Able-bodied  men  who  would  work  for  hire  were  scarce  nIw""^  °^ 
m  the  colonies,  and  wages  were  consequently  high.     The   England, 
attempt  to  regulate  wages,  in  accordance  with  Enghsh  ^' 9^-99- 
precedent,   faUed   utterly.      The   statute  passed  by   the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  in   1630,   for  example, 
prescribing  2s.  a  day  for  skilled  artisans,  was  frequently 
revised  and  finally  repealed.     The  natives  were  lazy,  at 
least  in  the  estimation  of  the  whites,  and  showed  no  apti- 
tude for  field  work.     The  attempts  ma^e  to  force  this  non- 
mdustrial  people  to  manual  labor  were  unsuccessful,  for 
the  captives  sickened  and  died.     In  England,  on  the  other 
hand,  artisans  and  field  laborers  were  falling  into  poverty 


f 


I 


Brown, 
Genesis  of 
the  United 
States, 

I,  252,  352, 
So6 ;  II,  688. 


\    \  t  i*'.  - 


Bruce, 
I,  Ch.  IX. 


Ballagh, 
White 
Servitude 
in  Virginia. 


42        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

and  crime  for  lack  of  means  to  earn  an  honest  living,  and 
the  parish  officers  were  eager  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
paupers  and  dissolute  persons  with  whom  their  jails  and 
workhouses  were  filled.  It  was  thought  a  thrifty  and 
benevolent  scheme  to  send  this  surplus  pofiulation  to 
America.  The  London  Company  undertook  to  meet  half 
the  cost  of  transportation  and  maintenance  for  all  children 
sent  them  by  the  parish  authorities,  on  the  understanding 
that  they  were  bound  to  service  from  the  day  of  their 
arrival  in  Virginia  until  they  came  of  age.  The  Company 
undertook  to  provide  these  little  servants  with  food  and 
clothing  during  their  term  of  bondage,  to  teach  them  some 
trade,  and  to  assign  to  each  boy,  when  his  freedom  year 
arrived,  fifty  acres  of  land  to  cultivate,  a  cow,  seed  corn, 
tools,  and  firearms.  He  then  became  the  Company's 
tenant,  paying  one  half  the  produce  of  his  farm  for  seven 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  term  he  was  insured  full  posses- 
sion of  twenty-five  acres.  One  hundred  pauper  children 
were  sent  to  Virginia  from  the  city  of  London  in  16 19  and 
one  hundred  more  in  1620. 

Indentured  Servants.  —  After  the  collapse  of  the  Com- 
pany, individual  planters  began  to  import  servants  on 
similar  terms.  A  written  contract  or  indenture  bound 
master  and  man  to  the  fulfillment  of  their  mutual  obliga- 
tions. The  term  varied  with  the  age  of  the  servant;  if 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age  he  was  to  serve  four  years, 
if  under  twelve,  seven.  For  persons  between  twelve  and 
twenty  the  usual  term  of  service  was  five  years.  A  law 
enacted  in  1666  made  the  general  requirement  of  five 
years'  service  from  persons  imported  at  nineteen  years 
or  over,  while  servants  under  that  age  were  to  serve  until 
their  twenty-fourth  year.  CWldren  were  preferred  to 
adults  because  they  were  usually  more  teachable,  the  cost 
of  maintenance  was  less,  and  the  term  of  service  longer. 
Hundreds  of  these  unfortunates  were  indentured  by  their 
relatives,  or  transported  by  the  parish  guardians,  or  kid- 
napped by  the  agents  of  shipmasters  and  shi})f>ed  to  Vir- 
ginia to  be  bound  over  on  their  arrival  to  the  planter  who 


s-*,  *-i4> 


^  Uil-] 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  43 

offered  most  for  <heir  services.     Fourteen  or  fifteen  hun- 
dred such  children  were  sent  over  in  1627  and  the  shameful 
trade  thrived  thereafter.     Restrictive  legislation  seemed 
futile.     In  1680  the  English  authorities  estimated  that    lo-o-^v    ^^^ . 
some   ten   thousand   persons   were   each   year   "  spirited         '  ^D 
away  "  to  America  by  force^r  fraud. 

Of  the  adults  brought  over  many  were  criminals  whose  McCormac, 
death  sentence  had  been  commuted  to  a  term  oTse^vice  ^^^^^ 
in  the  plantations.     The  Council  in  Virginia  early  pro-   in  Maryland 
tested  against  the  foisting  of  felons  on  that  colony,  and  2K7i  . 
law  prohibiting  the  reception  of  such  persons  passed  the       *^>*****<n 
House  of  Burgesses  (1671)  and  was  approved  by  the  gov- 
ernor.    Seven  years  later  this  law  was  set  aside  to  give 
opportunity  for  the  transportation  of  political  offenders. 
Shiploads  of  Irish  rebels  had  been  sent  to  America  during   ^,A    j^tJt^JL 
Cromwell's  occupation   of   Ireland,   and   Cavaliers  were   /t>      .' 
transported  from  England  in  like  manner  for  their  cham- 
pionship of  the  Stuarts.     After  the  restoration  of  Charles    .^#^«.vv*6Xx--/s 
II,  batches  of  Roundheads  were  sent  to  the  colonies  to 
be  sold  into  service.     Scotchmen  involved  in  the  insur- 
rection of  1678  and  the  English  farmers  and  laborers  who 
joined  in  Monmouth's  rebellion  were  also  transported  to 
America.   They  were  carried  to  the  Barbadoes  or  to  Jamaica 
or  to  any  coast  port  where  there  was  a  good  chance  of 
finding  a  purchaser,  but  the  greater  number  were  disposed 
of  in  the  Southern  colonies,  where  estates  were  cultivated 
on  a  large  scale.     On  the  little  New  England  farms  in- 
dentured servants  were  not  so  much  in  demand. 

The  law  did  what  it  could  to  protect  the  servant  in  his  Bruce, 
rights.     If  the  master  failed  to  provide  adequate  food  ^^'  ^^-  X.    ' 
and  lodging  or  treated  his  man  %vith  undue  harshness,  the 
latter  had  recourse  to  the  county  court,  and  the  commis- 
sioners were  authorized  to  annul  the  contract  if  the  master 
did  not  make  amends.    The  law  required  that  in  case  of  Phillips, 
sickness  a  physician  should  be  furnished,  and  if  the  ser-  Plantation 
vant  became  permanently  incapacitated  the  master  must  j^  339-375.  ' 
still  provide  for  him  till  the  end  of  his  term;   thereafter 
the  parish  was  responsible.     On  the  other  hand,  the  county 


V  c^»^^*-X«*T*.*\/ 


¥t4Ar 


^V 


^ 


44        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


officers  were  bound  to  assist  in  the^recapture  of  runaway 
servants.  Men,  boats,  and  horses  were  impressed  for  the 
search  until  the  fugitive  was  restored  to  his  master.  He 
was  then  obHged  to  serve  double  the  time  of  his  unexpired 
term  and  to  pay  the  costs  of  capture,  while  if  the  offense 
were  repeated  he  might  be  whipi)ed  or  branded  in  the  ch^ek. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  moral  right  and  wrong 
of  this  labor  system,  its  economic  advantages  were  many. 
Laborers  were  transferred  from  the  place  where  they  were 
not  wanted  to  a  place  where  they  were  in  demand,  and  their 
passage  money  was  paid  by  an  employer  who  was  guaranteed 
against  loss  by  a  claim  of  from  five  to  ten  years  of  service. 
When  the  term  expired,  master  and  servant  [)resented 
themselves  at  the  county  court  and  a  certificate  of  emanci- 
pation was  made  out  and  duly  signed.  The  servant  was 
then  presented  with  ten  bushels  of  grain,  two  suits  of  clothes, 
firearms,  etc.,  sufficient  to  secure  him  against  want,  and 
the  emancipated  man  could  earn  good  wages  as  a  free 
laborer  or  he  might  even  acquire  land.  In  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey  redemptioners  were  granted  fifty  and 
seventy-five  acres  to  cultivate  in  their  own  right. 

African  Slaves.  —  Toward  the  close  of  the  sc^venteenth 
century  the  supply  of  servants  from  the  Britisli  Isles  fell 
short,  and  laborers  were  provided  from  another  source. 
A  shipload  of  negroes,  captured  on  the  Gold  (>)ast,  had 
been  brought  to  Jamestown  by  a  Dutch  trader  in  1619 
as  a  business  venture.  The  Dutch  West  India  Company 
sent  other  shiploads  from  time  to  time,  but  they  found 
their  best  market  in  the  West  Indies.  There  were  only 
three  hundred  Africans  in  Virginia  in  1650  and  but  two 
thousand  in  167 1,  and  the  number  might  have  remained 
inconsiderable  had  not  an  English  commercial  corpora- 
tion—  the  Royal  African  Company,  chartered  in  1662 
—  been  given  (1687)  exclusive  monopoly  of  trade  between 
the  Gold  Coast  and  the  British  colonies.  Under  the 
auspices  of  the  Duke  of  York,  the  commerce  in  slaves  was 
encouraged,  and  great  numbers  were  sent  to  the  Atlantic 
coast  for  sale. 


Weld, 
Travels, 
I,  120-124. 

Eddis, 

Letters  from 
America, 
63-89. 


Geiser, 
Redemption- 
ers and 
Indentured 
Servants  in 
Pennsyl- 
vania. 


Bruce, 
II,  Ch.  XI. 


Weeden, 
II,  Ch.  XII. 


/ 


Beverley, 
Bk.  IV, 
Ch.  X. 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization         45 


I 


The  Africans  were  barbarians,  but  they  had  practiced 
agriculture  and  primitive  manufactures,  and  they  were 
physically  better  adapted  to  field  labor  in  a  hot  climate 
than  the  servants  imported  from  the  British  Isles.  It  was 
soon  apparent  that  the  slave  was  a  more  economical  in- 
vestment than  the  indentured  servant.  The  initial  cost 
was  greater.  The  passage  money  paid  to  secure  a  servant 
amounted  to  from  £6  to  £10,  while  the  price  of  a  slave 
varied  from  £10  to  £50 ;  but  the  servant  was  bound  for 
a  limited  term,  while  the  slave  was  bound  for  Hfe.  His 
children,  moreover,  became  the  property  of  his  master. 
The  slave  was  fed  and  clothed  more  cheaply  than  the  ser- 
vant, for  there  was  no  contract,  and  the  slave  had  no 
standing  in  the  courts  against  his  master.  The  African 
had  less  skill  and  intelligence  than  the  white  servant,  but 
high-grade  labor  was  not  necessary  for  extensive  agriculture. 

Slaves  were  bought  and  sold  all  along  the  Atlandc  coast. 
They  were  less  in  demand  in  the  Northern  colonies  where 
more  intelligent  labor  was  required  and  where  the  climate 
was  too  severe  for  men  and  women  fresh  from  tropic  Africa. 
JP  J721,  when  the  slave  trade  was  at  its  height,  there  were 
few  blacks  in  New  England ;  in  New  York,  the  number 
was  seven  thousand,  or  one  seventh  of  the  total  populaUon ; 
in  Pennsylvania,  the  slave  population  made  up  one  thirteenth 
of  the  total ;  in  Maryland  it  was  neariy  half,  in  Virginia 
more  than  half,  in  North  Carolina  one  third,  while  in  South 
Carolina  the  blacks  outnumbered  the  whites  in  the  rario 
of  four  to  three.  The  benevolent  projectors  of  the  Georgia 
colony  forbade  the  holding  of  slaves,  but  their  intentions 
were  overruled  by  the  planters,  who  asserted  that  the  hot 
and  malarial  coast  country  could  not  be  cultivated  by 
Europeans.  George  Whitefield,  the  eminent  evangelist, 
supported  their  pedtion  on  the  ground  that  slavery  was 
the  best  means  to  raise  the  Africans  from  barbarism  to 
civilizadon.  The  blacks  did,  indeed,  learn  the  English 
language  and  adopt  the  Chrisdan  religion,  and  they  were 
trained  to  useful  labor ;  but  the  influence  of  the  system 
was  none  the  less  demoralizing  for  owner  and  slave.    The 


Washington, 
Story  of 
the  Negro, 
I,  Ch.  II, 
III,  IV. 


\ 


Steiner, 
History  of 
Slavery  in 
Connecticut, 
377-393- 

Kalm, 

Travels  into 

North 

America, 

I.  387-397- 

Bassett, 

Slavery  in 

North 

Carolina 

Colony. 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
V,  376,  387- 
388. 


J 


U 


f 


I 


Phillips, 

n,  99-125. 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York. 
V,  610. 


Bullock, 
Monetary 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
Pt.  I,  Ch.  III. 


Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
11-14. 

Eggleston, 
Commerce 
in  the 
Colonies. 


Ripley, 
Financial 
History  of 
Virginia, 
108-153- 


46        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

social  dangers  involved  in  bringing  thousands  of  untutored 
savages  of  a  wholly  alien  race  to  work  in  gangs  under  hired 
overseers  were  very  grave.  A  serious  slave  insurrection 
broke  out  in  South  Carolina  (i72i),and  the  Board  of  Trade 
urged  the  governor  to  devise  some  law  for  encouraging 
the  importation  of  white  servants. 

The  Scarcity  of  Money 

Once  "  seated  "  upon  the  land  it  was  easy  for  an  in- 
dustrious community  to  provide  shelter   and   food   and 
coarse  clothing,  but  all  luxuries  and  many  of  the  necessities, 
such  as  iron  implements  and  other  manufactures,  must 
be  imported  from  across  the  witer,  and  to  pay  for  such 
commodities  was  difficult.     Fortunate  was  the  colony  for 
whose  products  there  was  a  market  in  England.     Gold 
and  silver  coin  was  always  acceptable  to  foreign  creditors, 
but  of  this  there  was  Uttle  in  circulation.     The  specie 
brought  over  by  incoming  colonists  was  soon  returned  in 
payment  of  debts,  and  there  was  as  yet  no  mining  of  the 
precious  metals.    The  main   source  of  supply  was  the 
Spanish  colonies,  notably  the  West  Indies,  whence  silver 
might  be  had  in  exchange  for  lumber  and  salt  fish.     Several 
of  the  colonial  governments  established  mints  in  the  hope 
of  providing  a  specie  currency,  and  for  thirty-six  years 
(1652-1688)  Massachusetts  coined  the  "pine-tree  "shillings. 

They  contained  but  78  per  cent  of  the  silver  required  in 
an  EngUsh  shilling,  but  even  this  depreciated  coin  was 

exported. 

For  the  purpose  of  local  traffic'  certain  staple  com- 
modities were  used  as  the  medium  of  exchange,  —  corn, 
cattle,  and  beaver  skins  in  the  Northern  colonies,  to])acco 
in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  rice  and  hides  in  the  Carolinas 
and  in  Georgia,  bullets  along  the  frontier.  The  several 
colonial  governments  authorized  the  practice  and  under- 
took to  fix  the  specie  value  of  these  commodity  moneys. 
The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  (1640)  set  the  value 
of  Indian  corn  at  four  shillings  a  bushel,  that  of  rye  at  five 


The  Business  Aspects  of  Colonization  47 

shillings,  that  of  wheat  at  six.  According  to  Mme. 
Knight,  the  practice  still  held  at  New  Haven  in  1704. 
"They  give  the  title  of  merchant  to  every  trader: 
who'  Rate  their  Goods  according  to  the  spetia  they 
pay  in:  viz.  Pay,  money.  Pay  as  money,  and  trust- 
ing. Pay  is  Grain,  Pork,  Beef,  etc.  at  the  prices  sett 
by  the  General  Court  that  year;  mony  is  pieces  of 
Eight,  Ryalls,  or  Boston  or  Bay  shillings  (as  they  call 
them,)  or  Good  hard  money,  as  sometimes  silver  coin 
is  termed  by  them;  Also  Wampom,  viz.  Indian  Beads 
w'cA  serves  for  change.  Pay  as  money  is  provisions  as 
aforesJ  one  Third  cheaper  then  as  the  Assembly  or  Gen/ 
Court  sets  it ;  and  Trust  as  they  and  the  merchant  agree 
for  time.  Now  when  the  buyer  comes  to  ask  for  a  com- 
odity,  some  times  before  the  merchant  answers  that  he 
has  it,  he  sais,  is  Your  pay  redy  ?  Perhaps  the  Chap 
Reply's  Yes ;  What  do  you  pay  in  says  the  merchant. 
The  buyer  having  answered,  then  the  price  is  set;  as 
suppose  he  wants  a  sixpenny  knife,  in  pay  it  is  iid  —  in 
pay  as  money  eightpence,  and  hard  money  its  own  price, 
viz.  6d/."  In  Virginia  warehouses  were  established  for  the 
storing  of  tobacco,  and  certificates  of  deposit  were  issued 
that  served  the  purposes  of  local  trade,  but  the  value  of 
tobacco  fluctuated  from  year  to  year.  The  government 
attempted  to  limit  production  and,  failing  this,  was  forced 
to  buy  up  and  burn  an  extra  heavy  crop  in  order  that 
the  surplus  might  not  depress  prices  unduly. 

The  colonists  found  the  natives  using  a  shell  money 
called  wampum,  and  this  admirably  served  the  purposes 
of  Indian  trade.  So  long  as  wampum  might  be  exchanged 
for  beaver  skins,  it  passed  as  money  among  the  whites, 
and  it  was  used  throughout  the  seventeenth  century  all 
along  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  disappearance  of  the  Indian 
tribes  destroyed  its  purchasing  power. 


Bradford, 
281-283. 

Mme. 
Knight's 
Journal, 
53-54- 


Bullock, 

Pt.  I,  Ch.  n 


Weeden, 

Indian 

Money. 


II 


h  ( 


! 


I 


1 


• 


D  wight, 
Travels, 
II,  297-298, 
308-309, 
464-469. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  122, 
igo-191. 


CHAPTER   m 

INDUSTRIAL  DEVELOPMENT  UNDER  BRITISH 

CONTROL 

Agriculture 

The  men  who  came  to  the  EngUsh  colonies,  whether 
gentlemen  or  paupers,  proprietors  or  indentured  servants, 
were  under  the  common  necessity  of  providing  themselves 
with  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.    The  first  settlers  were 
everywhere  farmers,  since  the  necessities  of  life  must  be 
had  from  the  soil.     How  easily  an  able-bodied,  intelligent 
man  could  make  a  Uving  in  America,  we  are  told  by  a  con- 
temporary observer.     "  It  is  common  to  see  men  demand 
and  have  grants  of  land  who  have  no  substance  to  fix 
themselves  further  than  cash  for  the  fees  of  taking  up  the 
land ;   a  gun,  some  powder  and  shot,  a  few  tools,   and  a 
plow;    they    maintain    themselves    the    first    year,    like 
Indians,  with  their  guns,  and  nets ;  and  afterwards  by  the 
same  means  with  the  assistance  of  their  lands  ,  the  labor 
of  their  farms  they  perform  themselves,  even  to  being  their 
own  carpenters  and  smiths ;    by  this  means,  people  who 
may  be  said  to  have  no  fortunes,  are  enabled  to  live,  and 
in  a  few  years  to  maintain  themselves  and  families  com- 
fortably. ...    The  progress  of  their  work  is  this ;  they 
fix  upon  the  spot  where  they  intend  to  build  the  house, 
and  before  they  begin  it,  get  ready  a  field  for  an  orchard, 
planting  it  immediately  with  apples  chiefly,  and  some  pears, 
cherries,  and  peaches.     This  they  secure  by  an  inclosure, 
then  they  plant  a  piece  for  a  garden ;  and  as  soon  as  these 
works  are  done,  they  begin  their  house :   some  are  built 
by  the  countrymen  without  any  assistance,  but  these  are 
generally  very  bad  hovels ;   the  common  way  is  to  agree 

4^ 


Development  under  British  Control 


49 


with  a  carpenter  and  mason  for  so  many  days'  work,  and 
the  countryman  to  serve  them  as  a  laborer,  which,  with  a 
few  irons  and  other  articles  he  cannot  make,  is  the  whole 
expense:  many  a  house  is  built  for  less  than  £20.  As 
soon  as  this  work  is  over,  which  may  be  in  a  month  or  six 
weeks,  he  falls  to  work  on  a  field  of  corn,  doing  all  the  hand 
labor  of  it,  and,  from  not  being  able  to  buy  horses,  pays 
a  neighbor  for  plowing  it;  perhaps  he  may  be  worth 
only  a  calf  or  two  and  a  couple  of  young  colts,  bought  for 
cheapness ;  and  he  struggles  with  difficulties  till  these  are 
grown;  but  when  he  has  horses  to  work,  and  cows  that 
give  milk  and  calves,  he  is  then  made,  and  in  the  road  to 
plenty.  It  is  surprising  with  how  small  a  sum  of  money 
they  will  venture  upon  this  course  of  settling;  and  it 
proves  at  the  first  mention  how  population  must  increase 
in  a  country  where  there  are  such  means  of  a  poor  man's 
supporting  his  family  :  and  in  which,  the  larger  the  family, 
the  easier  is  his  undertaking." 

Money  profit  in  such  farming  there  was  none  unless  the 
land  was  situated  on  a  river  by  means  of  which  the  surplus 
products  might  be  shipped  to  market,  but  a  farmer  usually 
produced  everything  needed  for  the  comfort  of  his  family. 
Grain  grown  on  the  cleared  land  was  ground  at  a  grist- 
mill built  of  the  felled  trees  and  run  by  water  power  or 
wind.  Cattle  and  hogs  ranged  the  woodland  and  furnished 
meat,  to  be  eaten  fresh  or  salted  down  in  pickle.  Hides 
were  tanned  and  made  up  into  shoes  on  the  place,  and  the 
women  of  the  house  spun  and  wove  into  warm,  durable 
cloth  the  wool  cut  from  the  sheep  that  grazed  the  hill 
pastures.  Flax  was  grown  in  sufficient  quantity  to  pro- 
vide the  lighter  clothing.  Nothing  need  be  purchased 
but  salt  and  sugar,  tea  and  coffee,  millstones,  and  imple- 
ments of  iron.  Under  such  conditions  every  enterprising 
man  might  acquire  property,  even  though  he  came  into 
the  country  as  an  indentured  servant.  His  term  of  service 
at  an  end,  the  bondman  became  a  free  laborer,  and,  since 
wages  were  high,  he  quickly  accumulated  enough  money 
to  secure  title  to  a  tract  of  land. 


I; 


It 


i! 


Greene, 
Ch.  XIV. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  Ch.  VIII. 


American 
Husbandry, 

I,  45-93- 


Callender, 
Selections 
from  Econ. 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
6-15. 


Bradford, 
121. 

D  wight, 
n.  SIS- 


Dwight, 
I,  Letter 
VIII. 


50        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  mother  country  offered,  no  such  opportunity  to 
her  sons.  There  wages  were  low  and  rents  high,  and  the 
cost  of  hving  great.  Not  the  utmost  diligence  and  thrift 
could  put  a  poor  man  in  possession  of  an  acre  of  ground. 
Small  wonder  then  that  the  unemployed  laborers  and  dis- 
inherited yeomen  crowded  the  ships  bound  for  America 
and  besieged  the  land  offices  for  title  to  a  share  in  the 
wilderness. 

The  New  England  Colonies.  —  We  have  seen  with  what 
difficulty  Englishmen  adapted  themselves  to  the  severe 
cUmate  of  New  England.     The  winters  were  bitter  beyond 
anything  they  had  known,   and  the  sudden  changes  of 
temperature  proved  trying  to  constitutions  accustomed 
to  equable  island  weather.     Clranite  rock  and  glacial  drift 
made  an  unpromising  combination  to  farmers  accustomed 
to  the  fertile  fields  of  Old  England.     The  soil  was  sterile 
except  in  the  valleys,  and  tht!  summers  too  short  for  ripen- 
ing English  grains.     Nevertheless,  the  colonists  who  secured 
grants  in  this  inhospitable   region  managed  to  support 
their  famiUes  and  eventually  to  accumulate  wealth.     The 
friendly  Squanto  taught  the  men  of  Plymouth  how  to 
plant  the  Indian  grain  and  how  to  fertilize  the  soil  with 
fish,  one  in  each  hill.     Maize  was  successfully  grown  in 
the  coast  districts  and  soon  became  the  staple  breadstuff. 
Within  a  few  years  the  Pilgrims  were  selling  corn  and  salt 
pork  to  the  fishing  stations  up  and  down  the  coast.     Vege- 
tables, too,  flourished  in  the  brief,  hot  summers.     Apples 
and  cherries  and  the  hardier  fruits  did  well.     The  cattle 
brought  over  from  England  at  great  cost  found  pasture 
on  the  cleared  land,  but  it  m  as  necessary  to  house  and  feed 
them  through  the  three  or  four  months  when  the  ground 
was  covered  with  snow.    The  forests  afforded  excellent 
timber,  — oaks  for  the  hulls  of  ships,  spruce  unexcelled 
for  masts,  pine,  maple,  and  chestnut  for  the  building  of 
houses  and  barns  and  mills.     There  was  plenty  of  game, 
and  fish  were  abundant.     Where  everything  was  to  be 
had  for  the  asking,  men  grew  improvident  of  nature's 
gifts.     The  woods  were  cleared  with  a  wasteful  zeal  that 


Development  under  British  Control 


51 


took  no  thought  of  the  future,  the  soil  planted  continuously 
to  corn  was  soon  drained  of  its  fertility,  the  fur-bearing 
animals  disappeared  with  the  forests.  The  products  of 
field  and  woodland  would  have  supported  only  a  sparse 
population ;  but  New  England  had  other  sources  of  wealth. 

At  the  headwaters  of  the  Connecticut  and  the  Merrimac, 
the  Kennebec  and  the  Penobscot,  the  beavers  built  their 
dams.  Their  pelts  brought  from  twenty  to  twenty-five 
shilUngs  a  pound,  and  trapping  was  a  lucrative  occupation. 
Plymouth  colony  sent  to  London  in  the  five  years  from 
163 1  to  1636  £10,000  of  beaver,  and  the  furs  of  the  otter 
and  the  black  fox  were  hardly  less  valuable.  Every  year 
Boston  sent  a  vessel  to  Sable  Island  which  came  back 
loaded  with  the  much  prized  skins  of  the  black  fox,  together 
with  seal  oil  and  sea  lion's  teeth.  The  Indians  were  the 
most  successful  trappers,  and  the  bulk  of  the  furs  was 
secured  from  them  in  exchange  for  food,  blankets,  and 
ammunition.  New  England's  share  in  this  profitable 
trade  was  forfeited  with  King  Philip's  war  (1685). 

The  men  of  the  coast  towns  found  a  mine  of  surpassing 
richness  in  the  sea,  and  fishing  was  a  profitable  industry 
from  the  start.  Cod  of  exceptional  size  and  flavor  were 
caught  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  fishermen  of  Marble- 
head  and  Salem  sent  shiploads  of  dried  fish  to  the  West 
Indies  and  to  the  Catholic  countries  of  Europe.  In  1641 
three  hundred  thousand  cod  were  sent  to  foreign  markets. 
When  the  near-shore  fishing  grounds  were  exhausted,  the 
enterprising  Yankees  ventured  out  to  sea  and  were  re- 
warded by  larger  catches.  The  codbanks  off  Newfound- 
land afforded  a  more  lasting  supply. 

The  fisheries  created  a  demand  for  salt  which  was  readily 
supplied  by  evaporating  sea  water.  Salt  works  were  set 
up  at  Piscataqua  in  1623  and  at  Beverley  in  1638.  Along 
the  shores  of  Cape  Cod  as  well,  salt  vats  were  a  considerable 
source  of  revenue. 

The  right  or  fin  whale  was  abundant  off  the  New  Eng- 
land coast  throughout  the  first  hundred  years  of  colonial 
history,  and  furnished  products  of  great  importance  in  the 


Weeden, 
I,  90, 
129-132, 
135-140. 


Bradford, 
412-413. 


Weeden, 
I.  132-135- 


Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View  of  U.S., 
37-43- 


Bishop, 
Hist,  of  Am. 
Manufac- 
tures, 
I,  Ch.  XIII. 

Dwight, 
III,  70-81. 

Weeden, 
I,  Ch.  XI. 


J 


52        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Marvin, 
Am.  Mer- 
chant 
Marine, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Abbot, 
Am.  Ships 
and  Sailors, 
Ch.  IV. 

Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View  of  U.S., 
43-47. 


Fishing  Banks  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Chesape.^ke 

marketsof  the  time,— whale  bones  and  whale  oil.    The 
carcass  of  one  of  these  huge  creatures  was  valued  at  i.16. 
At  first  men  were  content  to  save  the  blubber  from  the 
bodies  that  drifted  ashore.     Soon,  however,  they  began 
to  put  out  to  sea  in  boats  and  harpoon  the  ammal  when  he 
came  up  to  breathe.    Toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  fishermen  of  Nantucket  took  up  this  hazardous 
industry  and  developed  a  high  degree  of  skill.     A   tradi- 
tion of  1690  has  it  that  a  prophetic  Islander,  as  he  watched 
the  whales  spouting  in  the  Sound,  exclaimed,  "  There  is 
a  green  pasture  where  our  children's  children  will  go  for 
bread"    The  season's  profits  were  shared  by   masters 
and  men,  so  that  every  man  aboard,  from  tlie  captain  to 
the  cabin  boy,  was  directly  interested  in  the  success  of 

the  voyage. 

As  the  whales  were  driven  offshore,  these  hardy  sailors 
followed  them  out  into  the  deep  sea.    Ambergris  was  worth 


Development  under  British  Control 


53 


its  weight  in  silver,  while  sperm  oil,  ivory,  and  spermaceti 
were  in  great  demand.  Pursuit  of  their  mighty  prey  led 
the  whalers  to  Arctic  latitudes  —  Davis  Strait,  Behring 
Strait,  and  the  Antarctic  Sea.  Whaling  vessels  were  built 
to  be  stanch  rather  than  swift  or  beautiful,  and  could  Hve 
in  the  roughest  weather.  They  were  manned  by  sailors 
famed  the  world  over  for  skill  and  daring.  New  Bedford, 
Marblehead,  and  Provincetown  vied  with  Nantucket  in 
prowess  and  profits,  but  Boston  was  the  center  for  the 
export  trade. 

New  York.  —  The  climate  of  this  region  is  similar  to 
that  of  New  England  except  in  the  lake  district,  where  the 
temperature  is  milder  and  more  equable.  West  of  the 
Hudson  the  granite  ranges  of  New  England  are  superseded 
by  Hmestone  hills.  The  soil  of  the  greater  part  of  New 
York  is,  in  consequence,  far  more  fertile,  and  the  colonists 
secured  abundant  crops  without  the  aid  of  fish  or  clam 
shells.  Wheat  as  well  as  corn  could  be  grown  in  the  val- 
leys, and  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  lakes  grapevines  and 
peach  trees  flourished.  Noble  forests  repaid  in  timber 
more  than  the  cost  of  clearing  the  land.  Sawmills  were 
set  up  on  every  stream,  and  logs  could  be  floated  down  the 
Mohawk  to  Albany  and  thence  down  the  Hudson  to  the 
sea.  Wages  were  high,  even  for  field  labor,  and  a  man 
might  readily  save  money  enough  to  secure  a  farm.  Once 
in  possession  of  land,  he  was  able  to  feed  his  family,  and 
yet  sell  something  in  the  neighboring  town.  Every  farmer 
lived  in  comfort  and  careless  plenty.  The  surplus  products 
sent  to  market  in  exchange  for  the  necessities  not  produced 
at  home  were  wheat  and  wheat  flour,  corn,  potatoes,  and 
barley.  From  this  last  the  brewers  of  New  York  made 
an  excellent  beer. 

The  Champlain  country  was  a  famous  trapping  ground 
for  beaver  and  other  fur-bearing  animals,  while  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  gave  access  to  remote  and 
unexplored  tracts  of  forest  country  and  to  Indian  tribes 
eager  to  exchange  peltries  for  trinkets,  rum,  and  firearms. 
When  this  traffic  was  at  its  height,  forty  thousand  skins 


Kaim, 

I,  234-272 ; 

II,  223-260. 

American 
Husbandry, 
I,  94-125. 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  115-123. 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
V,  726-733- 


i 


I 


American 
Husbandry, 
I,  132-215. 

Kalm, 

I,  27-145. 
184-194, 

22C5-233, 

340-359 ; 

II,  109-114, 
188-195. 

Bolles, 
Pennsyl- 
vania, 
II,  Ch.  XIII. 


American 
Husbandry, 

I.  152-153, 

169-170, 

185-192, 

207-209, 

213-215, 

426-431 ; 

n,  17, 19. 


American 

Husbandry, 

I,  216-248, 

256-277, 

330-3QO, 

414-435- 


54        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

were  annually  exported  to  England,  but  the  trade  declined 
toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  export 
of  1699  amounted  to  only  fifteen  thousand  skins. 

The  Middle  Colonies.  —  The  territory  most  congenial 
to  EngUshmen  by  reason  of  physical  endowment  lay  be- 
tween the  forty-second  and  the  thirty-ninth  parallels. 
Southern  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
Delaware,  although  ten  degrees  south  of  Great  Britain, 
have  a  climate  quite  similar.  The  virgin  soil,  even  under 
superficial  tillage,  yielded 'crops  of  wheat  and  barley,  oats 
and  rye,  greater  than  the  EngUsh  farmer  could  produce 
with  scientific  fertilization  and  rotation  of  crops.  Peach 
trees,  a  hothouse  plant  in  England,  bore  so  heavily  on  the 
sandy  plains  of  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  that  the  fruit 
lay  wasting  on  the  ground  or  was  fed  to  h(»gs.  Cattle 
and  sheep  throve  on  the  rich  native  grasses  without  need 
for  housing  or  feeding  through  the  winter.  Timber  in 
great  variety  was  to  be  had  on  the  slopes  of  the  AUeghanies, 
and  the  Highlands  of  East  Jersey  contained  rich  mineral 
deposits. 

Orpflt  ft;t^tes  were  rare,.  The  fertile  area  was  parceled 
out  in  small  farms,  and  the  settlers,  whether  Dutch, 
Swedish,  or  English,  lived  in  plain  but  ample  comfort. 
Indentured  servants  were  far  more  frequent  than  in  the 
colonies  to  north  or  south.  It  was  quite  usual  for  a  man 
of  no  substance  to  mortgage  his  labor  for  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation, and  foreigners,  notably  Germans,  preferred  this 
means  of  getting  to  America,  since  it  insured  them  em- 
ployment for  a  term  of  years  and  opportunity  to  learn  the 
language.  Slaves,  too,  were  not  uncommon.  The  country 
was  better  suited  to  the  African  physique  than  the  more 
Northern  colonies. 

Virginia.  —  South  of  Delaware  Bay  climate,  soil,  and 
products  were  new  to  men  born  in  the  British  Isles.  The 
summer  season  was  longer  and  far  hotter,  and  the  lowlands 
were  malarial.  The  settlers  at  Jamestown  attempted  to 
grow  wheat,  but  soon  discovered  that  though  the  plant 
shot  up  to  an  amazing  height  in  the  deep,  l)lack  soil,  the 


S 


n  > 

o  e 

^  I 
p 

c  "* 


?. 


Development  tmder  British  Control 


5S 


■llijljl 


56        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Bruce, 

I,  Ch.  IV,  V. 


J^^ 


ill 


Callender, 
20-25. 


kernels  did  not  harden  into  grain.  Maize  planted  under 
the  direction  of  the  Indians  brought  in  a  heavy  harvest, 
and  seven  summers  after  the  landing  there  were  five  hun- 
dred acres  in  corn. 

In  161 2,  John  Rolfe,  the  husband  of  Pocahontas,  raised 
a  crop  of  tobacco.  It  soon  proved  to  be  the  most  market- 
able article  to  export,  and  the  settlers  began  to  cultivate 
the  nicotine  plant  to  the  detriment  of  food  products,  until 
Governor  Dale  was  forced  to  decree  that  no  man  should 
plant  tobacco  until  he  had  at  least  two  acres  in  grain. 
The  Company  urged  the  cultivation  of  flax,  cotton,  indigo, 
grapes,  mulberry  trees,  -and  silkworms,  commodities  that 
they  thought  more  advantageous  to  the  mother  country ; 
but  their  arguments  were  ridiculed  by  the  planters,  who 
persisted  in  growing  the  more  profitable  crop.  -Flax  and 
raw  silk  require  continuous  care  and  highly  inttilligent 
labor,  to  be  had  only  for  high  wages.  There  was  no  for- 
eign market  for  maize,  and  wheat  brought  —  but  2.?.  ^d. 
per  bushel  in  England,  while  tobacco  sold  for  3^.  a  pound. 
The  freight  rate  to  London  (£3  per  ton)  was  prohibitory 
in  the  case  of  the  less  valuable  crop.  In  1619  twenty 
thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  were  exported  from  Virginia, 
in  1620  forty  thousand,  and  in  1622  sixty  thousand  pounds. 
So  given  over  to  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  were  the  planters 
that  they  traded  their  firearms  to  the  Indians  in  exchange 
for  food.  The  Indian  massacre  of  1623  was  the  result  of 
this  foolhardy  policy.  In  the  year  following,  the  colony 
being  threatened  by  a  bread  famine,  the  government  re- 
quired that  a  public  granary  be  established  in  every  parish, 
where  each  adult  male  must  deposit  a  bushel  of  grain  after 
the  harvest.  Legislation  availed  very  httle,  however, 
for  every  planter  followed  the  course  that  meant  imme- 
diate money  advantage.  Only  when  the  price  of  tobacco 
declined,  or  his  land,  drained  of  fertiUty  by  this  most  ex- 
hausting  of  crops,  would  no  longer  bring  in  a  profitable 
return,  did  he  undertake  the  growing  of  corn  and  wheat. 

James  I  had  opposed  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  on  moral 
grounds,  declaring  that  it  tended  to  "  a  general  and  new 


u 

o 
u 
u 

< 

ca 


»■ 


Development  under  British  Control 


57 


I 

I 


corruption  both  of  men's  bodies  and  manners."  He 
forbade  it  to  be  grown  in  England,  and  restricted  the  im- 
portation to  fifty-five  thousand  pounds  a  year,  but  neither 
this  nor  later  restrictive  decrees  were  of  any  avail.  In 
the  first  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  colonies  ex- 
ported twenty-one  million  pounds  a  year,  that  figure  was 
doubled  by  1750,  and  a  clear  hundred-million  mark 
was  reached  before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Half  the  tobacco  exported  from  the  colonies  was  grown  in 
tidewater  Virginia. 

The  cultivation  of  tobacco  has  profoundly  influenced 
the  economic  organization  of  Virginia.  The  character- 
istic agricultural  unit  was  the  plantation  of  from  one  to 
fifty  thousand  acres.  For  the  better  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  the  land  was  tilled  by  indentured  servants, 
but  as  the  money  advantage  of  slave  labor  came  to  be 
realized,  the  tobacco  fields  were  cultivated  by  imported 
Africans.  It  was  a  tillage  that  did  not  require  a  high 
degree  of  intelligence.  Ignorant  slaves  under  the  super- 
vision of  overseers  plowed  and  planted  and  hoed  the  wide 
levels  of  rich  loam  and,  when  the  plant  had  come  to  ma- 
turity, cut  and  carried  the  leaves  to  the  dry  house.  Great 
estates  that  originally  cost  nothing  but  the  land  office  fees 
brought  their  owners  from  £20,000  to  £80,000  a  year, 
while  the  ordinary  planter  could  count  on  an  income  of 
from  £3000  to  £6000,  Estates  of  less  than  one  thousand 
acres  could  not  be  worked  to  advantage  by  slave  labor. 
It  was  estimated  that  one  slave  could  till  fifty  acres  and 
that  one  overseer  could  manage  twenty  slaves,  and  varia- 
tions from  this  economic  ratio  involved  loss.  It  was 
usual  to  reckon  the  value  of  a  plantation  in  hands  rather 
than  in  acres.  Each  slave  was  expected  to  produce 
£16  worth  of  tobacco  and  £4  worth  of  lumber,  corn,  and 
other  provisions,  in  the  course  of  a  year.  By  so  doing  he 
paid  for  his  maintenance  (£3)  and  the  interest  on  his  pur- 
chase price  (£50  at  five  per  cent,  £2  105.)  and  brought 
in  a  handsome  margin  of  profit  to  his  master.  When  to 
this  product  revenue  are  added  the  profits  on  the  natural 


Bruce, 

I,  ch.  vn. 


Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

I,  223-231 ; 

II,  184-220. 


-4 


iA.vJtJ»^'y^^ 


Ballagh, 

Land  '' — ]1-_A| 
System  in  f  y  I 
the  South,  ' 

I I 7-1 19. 


Weld, 
I.  133, 

147-150.       * 

American 
Husbandry, 
I,  228-230, 
234,  246,  247. 


PhiUips, 

n,  29-39. 


Phillips, 
I,  282-283. 


\ 


58        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

increase  of  marketable  slaves,  it  will  be  seen  how  great 
were  the  immediate  advantages  of  slavery. 

The  economic  disadvantages  were  less  evident  two 
hundred  years  ago  than  they  are  to-day.  The  once  pro- 
ductive tobacco  fields  are  now  "  dead  lands,"  or  are  made 
to  yield  a  meager  return  by  the  application  of  expensive 
fertihzers.  Rotation  of  crops,  subsoil  plowing,  the  utili- 
zation of  animal  manures,  were  alike  impossible  with  la- 
borers fresh  from  barbarism,  and  the  planters  were  forced 
to  extensive  cultivation.  When  one  tract  of  land  was  ex- 
hausted, overseer  and  slaves  were  moved  on  to  new  soil. 
Extravagance  and  waste  characterized  the  management  of 
the  whole  plantation.  Houses  were  slightly  built,  orchards 
were  no  longer  planted,  vegetables,  grains,  and  other 
possible  crops  were  neglected,  the  fields  were  not  inclosed, 
cattle,  left  to  range  over  the  waste  lands  unhoused  and  un- 
fed, dwindled  in  size.  The  demoralizing  effect  of  extensive 
agriculture  was  never  more  apparent. 

The  wholesale  production  of  such  a  staple  meant  a  brisk 
export  trade.     The  tidal  rivers  and  fiord-like  inlets,  some 
of  which  were  navigable  eighty  miles  from  the  sea,  ad- 
mirably served  this  purpose.     The  banks  of  the  James, 
the  York,  and  the  Rappahannock  showed  a  series  of  great 
plantations,  each  with  its  own  wharf,   to  which  every 
autumn  sea-going  vessels  came  direct  from  England  to 
take  aboard  the  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  and  to  put  ashore 
the  commodities  sent  over  in  exchange.     This  was  a  highly 
profitable  trade,  even  more  so  to  the  mother  country  than 
to    Virginia.     English    maTMifart^irP''s;    fniinr^    flmpn^    the 
luxury-loving  planteFs  a  ready  market  for  their  fina  cloths^ 
rich   carpets,    and   mahogany    furniture.    Tobacco    was 
expected  to  pay  for  everything,  if  not  this  year's  crop  then 
!  that  of  next.     Every  planter  kept  a  running  account  with 
,  ^his  factor  in  London,  and  many  of  them  were  hopelessly 
i  /  in  debt  to  their  English  creditors.    The  practice  of  mortgag- 
'    ing  land  and  crops  against  the  merchant's  advances  has 
characterized  the  Southern  agriculturist  to  the  present  day. 
The  Piedmont  section  of  Virginia  and  the  Great  Valley 


Development  under  British  Control 


59 


I 


between  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alleghanies  were  not  settled  Fiske, 
till  all  of  the  coastal  plain  had  been  appropriated,  and  01^  Virginia 
thus  the  development  of  the  hill  country  was  postponed  Neighbors, 
until  the  eighteenth  century.     In  17 16  Alexander  Spots-  li,Ch.xvii.    - 
wood,  the  wisest  and  ablest  of  colonial  governors,  traversed  Letters 
the  fifty  miles  of   forest  that  divided  tidewater  Virginia  °f  ^°^- 
from  the  Blue  Ridge,  crossed  that  mountain  barrier  at  i^^o'"^"^' 
Swift  Run  Gap,  and  disco veredLthe^ Shenandoah  Valley^  n.  295-297. 
"  God's  own  country,"  as  he  devoutly  called  it.    The 
fifty  gentlemen  of  the  governor's  retinue,  the  "  Knights 
of  the  Golden  Horseshoe,"  who  drank  the  king's  health 
on  the  summit  of  Mount  George,  formed  a  significant 
contrast  to  the  actual  settlers  who  swarmed  into  the  coun- 
try  during   the   next   hundred  years.     The   ^rntr^-yrjc^h   ^^^^^ — — 
of  Ulster  were  driven  to  America  in  the  eighteenth  rfnniry  The  Scotch- 
by  noTessurgent  a  motive  than  had  impelled  the  PuriJLans  ch'xxxix 
and  Cavaliers  in  the  seventeenth.    Their  woolen  and  linen  Ji^^^^^,^  ^  k 
industries  had  been  ruined  (1681),  their  religious  and  ^^^'^^ZHnl^ h^ 
hberty  curtailed  (1704)  by  act  of  Pariiament,  and  they^^^^T/'^,^^ 
sought  freedom  from  Enghsh  tyranny  beyond  the  sea.Vi  ^'^Se-^c^^ 
It  was  a  veritable  race  migration.     Several  hundred  thou-   BoUes, 
sand  came  into  the  colonies  between  1730  and  1770,  the  P^'^psyl- 
majoij^art  to  Philadelphia  and  Charleston.     In  1770  one   1^01.  xn. 
third  of  tHepopularion  of  Pennsylvania  was  of  this  sturdy 
stock.     Finding  no  desirable  land  open  for  settlement  in 
the  coast  country,  they  pushed  south  along  the  valleys  of 
the  Appalachian  Range  and  peopled  the   Great  Valley  McCrady, 
of  Virginia,  destined  to  become  the  "  cradle  of  America."  ^^^^^^^  ^^ 
In  1769  the  southernmost  settlement,  Watauga,  was  planted  Carolina, 
in  the  shadow  of  the  Great  Smoky  Mountains,  on  the  ll-  Ch.  XVI, 
elevated  plateau  formed  by  the  streams  that  flow  westward  ^^"' 
into  the  Tennessee. 

The  men  who  took  uj^  farms  in  the  mountain  valleys   PhilUps, 
could  raise  wheat  and  bariey,  meat  and  wool,  fruit  and  i'  254-255. 
vegetables,  sufficient   for   family   use.     For  commodides   Weld, 
that  would  bring  a  price  in  distant  markets  high  enough  ^'  -'^4-216. 
to  pay  the  cost  of  transportation,  they  were  forced  to  de-   l^^""''"^^ 
pend  on  a  variety  of  articles  to  be  produced  only  by  in- 


~  iA 


Callender, 
25-28. 


McCrady, 
II,  40.  61, 
109, 126, 
143; 262-266, 
386-391, 
396-397. 


Ramsay, 
History  of 
South 
Carolina, 
II,  Ch.  V. 


American 
Husbandry, 

I,  345,  346, 
391-396,  407, 
408,  414-429. 

Fiske, 

Old  Virginia 
and  Her 
Neighbors, 

II,  326-330. 


60        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

telligent  labor.  From  these  uplands  came  the  deerskins 
and  tanned  leather,  the  timber  and  turpentine,  the  hemp 
and  flax,  that  figure  in  the  export  tables.  Such  farms  were 
profitable  only  under  intensive  agriculture,  and  there  was 
little  temptation  to  acquire  great  estates  or  to  import 
slaves.  The  people  of  the  "  back  country  "  were'  thrifty 
pioneers  who  tilled  their  fields  with  their  own  hands  and 
manufactured  clothing,  furniture,  and  wagons  at  need, 
as  did  the  small  farmers  of  New  England  and  Pennsylvania. 
The  contrast  in  the  physical  features  of  the  plain  and  the 
foothills  was  reflected  in  the  character  of  the  respective 
populations. 

The  physical  characteristics  of  the  Carolinas  and  of 
Georgia  were  quite  similar  to  those  of  Virginia,  except  that 
the  cHmate  of  the  coastal  plain  was  warmer  and  more 
malarial.  Here  in  the  sea  marshes  were  the  great  rice 
plantations.  Rice  must  be  flooded  in  the  growing  season, 
and  it  requires  a  rich  vegetable  mold  such  as  belongs  to 
the  swamp  belt.  Once  cleared  of  trees  and  thoroughly 
drained,  the  "  dismals  "  were  readily  converted  into  pro- 
ductive rice  plantations.  The  work  was  such  as  no  white 
man  could  endure,  for  the  laborer  must  stand  knee- deep 
in  mud  and  water,  stooping  under  a  broiling  sun,  while 
pestilent  exhalations  filled  his  lungs.  Even  the  l)lacks 
sickened  and  died. 

There  was  not  so  much  profit  in  this  crop  as  in  tobacco. 
Each  slave  was  expected  to  produce  £10  worth- oL  rice  Jn 
a  se^n.  When  to  the  cost  of  maintenance  and  super- 
vision (£3),  and  the  interest  on  the  purchase  price  (£2 
io5J_,was  added  the  risk  of  sickness  and  loss,  the  rate  of 
profit  dwindled  considerably.  Nevertheless  the  planters 
lived  in  state  and  luxury,  drawing  freely  upon  tht;  rice 
merchants  for  advances  in  money  and  goods.  Slaves 
and  overseers  meant  great  estates  here  as  in  tidewater 
Virginia.  There  was  no  chance  for  the  working  farmer 
in  a  region  where  the  cUmate  made  field  labor  imj)ossible 
for  a  white  man. 
Rice  was  introduced  into  South  CaroHna  in  the  last 


!  l:l 

1 


Rice  Culture  in  South  Carolina 


Development  under  British  Control 


6i 


quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century.     Before  the  close  of  PhiUips, 

the  eighteenth  this  crop  made  up  one  half  the  exports  ^;^^j, 
from  this  colony,  a  circumstance  that  gave  serious  concern 

to  the  home  government.     There  was  no  great  demand  McCrady, 


259-265.       *- 


for  rice  in  the  British  Isles,  and  so  far  as  this  export  found 
its  way  into  European  markets,  e.g.  Spain  and  Portugal, 
it  came  into  competition  with  English  wheat.  No  argu- 
ments, however,  could  induce  the  planters  to  cultivate  the 
silkworm,  so  greatly  desired  by  the  Spitalfield  weavers. 
The  seed  of  the  Oriental  igdi^go  was  planted  on  the  Ashley 
River  by  Eliza  Lucas,  a  botanical  lady  of  Charleston,  in 
1 741,  and  after  a  series  of  vexatious  experiments  she  suc- 
ceeded in  extracting  a  dye  not  inferior  to  the  French  prod- 
uct. For  fifty  years  thereafter  the  Sea  Island  planters  de- 
voted their  richest  soils  to  the  cultivation  of  indigo,  until, 
,  /  .,^  in  the  last  decade  before  the  Revolution,  South  CaroUna 
■^  r.  exported  five  hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year.     Indigo, 

%hd.  frr  ^^  ^^^^  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  shillings  a  pound,  brought  in  a  hand- 
,  ^.  ^^^    some  revenue.     One  slave  could  care  for  two  acres  pro- 
ducing each  eight  pounds  of  dye,  besides  putting  in  the 
winter  months  on  other  crops. 

In  the  "  back  country  "  the  hills  were  clothed  with 
noble  forests,  and  the  soil,  of  the  valleys  at  least,  was 
amazingly  fertile.  Here  wheat  could  be  grown,  and  fruits 
and  vegetables ;  while  in  the  Northern  counties  tobacco 
was  cultivated  to  advantage.  Though  there  was  more 
profit  in  tobacco  than  in  rice  and  though  the  air  of  the 
hills  was  more  wholesome,  the  original  settlers  of  the 
Carolinas  clung  to  the  sea  level,  and  population  moved 
-westward  but  slowly.  Not  till  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  immigrants  driven  to  these  new 
lands.  The  pioneers  paid  their  way  by  the  products  of 
the  forests,  lumber  and  pitch  and  tar  and  the  skins  of  wild 
animals ;  but  as  the  trees  were  cleared  away,  cattle  were 
brought  in.  The  hill  pastures  were  excellent  grazing 
ground,  and  since  only  the  cultivated  fields  were  fenced, 
the  cattle  roamed  at  will  irrespective  of  ownership,  and  a 
herd  of  a  thousand  head  was  not  uncommon.     This  was 


I,  350. 


7 


\ 


62        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 


American 
Husbandry, 

II,  IS. 


Michaux, 

Travels, 

290-306. 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 
398-420. 


the  paradise  of  the  "squatter."  A  fertile  tract  of  land 
having  been  chosen,  the  farmer  had  but  to  live  on  it  for 
a  term  of  ten,  fifteen,  or  twenty  years  to  secure  fee  simple 
title.  The  forests  teemed  with  game,  the  rivers  with  fish, 
the  fertile  soil  yielded  food  in  plenty  with  the  rudest 
tillage,  and  an  industrious  man  might  readily  acquire 
a  snug  Httle  property.  Few  slaves  were  imported  into 
the  hills,  for  their  labor  was  not  so  profitable  as  in  the  low- 
lands and  their  requirements  in  the  way  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing were  greater.  Here,  as  throughout  the  Piedmont 
district,  north  and  south,  physical  conditions  favored  the 
small  estate  and  the  self-employed  farmer. 

Fostering  Legislation.  —  Certain  agricultural  interests 
were  furthered  by  the  desire  of  English  statesmen  to  render 
Great  Britain  independent  of  European  imports.    The 
hemp,  lumber,  pitch,  and  tar  used  in  British  shipyards 
had  been  imported  from  countries  with  which  i:ngland 
might  at  any  time  be  involved  in  war.     To  securer   these 
supplies  from  a  reliable  source,  the  government  determined 
to  repeal  the  import  duties,  so  far  as  the  colonies  wt;re  con- 
cerned, and  to  offer  bounties  on  such  goods  as  should  be 
shipped  to  the  British  Isles.     The  bounty  on  hemp  was 
made  £6  per  ton  (1702).     In  response  to  this  premium 
Virginia  and  IVIaryland  exported  one  thousand  tons  a  year ; 
but  New  England,  whence  great  returns  were  expected, 
never  produced  enough  for  her  own  shipyards.     Deep, 
rich  loam  and  plenty  of  moisture  were  essential  to  success, 
and  these  conditions  were  rare  in  the  Northern   colonies. 
The  same  act  of  ParUament  offered  a  bounty  of  £1  per 
ton  on  masts  sent  to  England.     So  solicitous  was  the 
government  that  the  timber  of  the  colonies  should  not  be 
wasted,  that  a  penalty  was  imposed  for  felling  a  young  pine. 
The  surveyor -general  was  authorized  to  mark  with  a  broad 
arrow  trees  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  royal  navy,  and  the 
penalty  for  felling  was  £100.     The  British  import  duties 
on  lumber  were  removed.     Notwithstanding  these  induce- 
ments the  colonists  continued  to  ship  the  major  part  of 
their  lumber  to  the  West  Indies,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  in 


Development  under  British  Control 


63 


exchange  for  goods  imported  thence.  An  order  from  the 
Privy  Council  prohibiting  this  trade  was  of  no  effect. 
"  Nothing,"  said  one  of  the  king's  representatives,  ''  but 
an  act  of  Parliament  can  prevent  them." 

The  Act  of  1702  proposed  bounties  on  other  naval 
stores,  £4  per  ton  on  tar  and  pitch,  £3  per  ton  on  rosin 
and  turpentme.  This  last  bid  was  unexpectedly  success- 
ful. The  Carolinas  availed  themselves  of  the  premium 
offered  and  were  soon  sending  sixty  thousand  barrels  a 
year  to  England.  Prices  dropped  to  one  third  of  the 
former  rate  and  imports  from  the  Baltic  ceased.  English 
merchants  soon  had  more  of  these  commodities  than  could 
be  disposed  of  at  home  and  began  exporting  to  the  Conti- 
nent For  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  production 
of  mdigo,  the  duty  on  colonial  imports  was  removed  (1748) 
and  a  bounty  offered  of  sixpence  a  pound.  This  and  the 
removal  of  duties  on  raw  silk  affected  the  Carolinas  favor- 
ably, but  availed  nothing  toward  increasing  the  exports 
from  the  Northern  colonies. 


Manufactures 

Parliamentary   legislation    affecting    colonial    industry  Pitkin       - 
was  usually  suggested  Ly  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Planta-  Statistical 
tions,  a  committee  of  the  Privy  Council  intrusted  with  the  "^^f  ^•^•' 
oversight  of  Britain's  possessions  in  America.     The  lord 
commissioners  were  empowered  to  inquire  into  the  con- 
dition of  the  several  plantations,  the  progress  made  in 
agriculture,  trade,  and  manufactures,  to  receive  complaints 
and  petitions,  and  to  make  recommendations  as  a  basis 
for  imperial  enactment.    The  first  concern  of  the  com- 
missioners was  to  keep  colonial  industry  to  the  channels 
that  would  furnish  a  revenue  to  the  mother  country,  for 
the  colonies  were  expected  to  provide  the  raw  materials  ' 
for  England's  manufactures  and  a  market  for  the  finished 
products. 

From  the  first  the  colonists  of  New  England  found  it 
difficult  to  pay  for  goods  imported  from  the  mother  country. 


64        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  first  shipload  of  exports  from  Plymouth  (the  Fortuw, 
November,  162 1)  was  made  up  of  clapboards  and  beaver 
skins.  Naval  stores,  masts,  planking,  tar,  pitch,  etc  were 
always  in  demand,  but  the  supply  decreased  as  the  forests 
were  cleared.     Beaver  and  other  furs  brought  a  high  price 


Development  under  British  Control 


65 


£2,000,000 
BALANCE 

•--^°''    £1.000.000 

COLONIES 

0 

,  £1,000.000 

BALANCE    •, 
AGAINST    £2,000,000 

*  THE 
COLONIES  £3,000,000 

■4- 

£4,000,000 
£6,000,000 
£6j  000,000 
£7,000,000 
£8,000,000 
£9,000,000 


£10.000,000 


_„^    TOTAL  FOR  ALL  COLONIES      ^..  *_-+-FOR  PENNSYLVANIA 

FOR  NEW^ENOLAND  ♦♦♦***,+     FO"  VIRGINIA  AW  MARYUND 

, FOR  NEW  YOWC  j_  ^R  CAROUNA 

The  Balance  of  Trade  between  the  American  Colonies  and 
Great  Britain,  by  Decades,  from  1697  to  1775 

in  London,  but  this,  too,  was  a  short-lived  industry. 
It  was  fortunate  for  New  England  that  the  whale  fisheries 
began  to  afford  marketable  products  just  as  the  fur  trade 
was  languishing.  The  spoil  of  the  whaling  voyages,  how- 
ever, enriched  only  a  few  coast  towns.  The  farmers  could 
raise  nothing  that  found  a  ready  sale  in  England.  More- 
over, the  cost  of  imported  goods  was  beyond  their  means. 
The  transatlantic  voyage  was  slow  and  the  hazards  great, 
freight   charges   were   high   and   commissions   excessive. 


Contemporary  records  abound  in  complaints  of  the  ex- 
travagant prices  paid  on  this  account.  A  shipload  of  goods 
sent  to  Plymouth  in  1624,  for  instance,  sold  at  a  profit  of 
seventy  per  cent.  The  Civil  Wars  (1640-1660)  checked 
migration  to  New  England,  and  the  inflow  of  gold  ceased. 
The  small  stock  of  coin  in  the  colony  was  quickly  exhausted, 
and  the  colonists  were  left  with  no  means  of  meeting  debts 
in  London. 

Cloth  Manufacture.  —  The  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts strove  to  meet  this  difficulty  by  encouraging  do- 
mestic manufacture.  In  1640  the  magistrates  were  di- 
rected to  further  the  growing  and  preparation  of  flax  and 
to  consider  measures  for  providing  wheels  and  teaching 
the  boys  and  girls  how  to  spin  not  only  flax  but  cotton  and 
wool.  In  1656  the  selectmen  of  the  several  towns  were 
ordered  to  require  every  family  to  furnish  one  or  more 
spinners  according  to  its  capacity,  each  of  whom  was  ex- 
pected to  spin  three  pounds  of  yarn,  cotton,  or  wool  every 
week  for  thirty  weeks  in  the  year.  The  penalty  for  non- 
performance was  a  fine  of  twelve  pence  for  every  pound 
short. 

The  raw  material  of  cloth  manufacture  was  scarce  and 
dear.     European  flax  had  been  introduced  in  1629,  but 
despite  the  efforts  of  the   magistrates,  not   enough'  was 
raised  for  the  home  market.     Cotton,  a  far  more  difficult 
fiber,   was  brought  from  the   Barbadoes  and  the  West 
Indies,  but  could  only  be  spun  when  mixed  with  flax  and 
was  not  in  general  use.     Wool,  the  stuff  most  in  demand, 
might  not  be  had  from  the  mother  country,  for  the  English 
government  guarded  with  jealous  care  this  much  prized 
industry  and  prohibited  the  exportation  of  sheep  or  fleece. 
There  were  as  yet  few  sheep  in  the  colony  and  the  only 
available  supply  of  wool  was  found  in  Spain.     The  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts   (1645)   appealed  to  the  towns 
within  its  jurisdiction  to  set  about  the  preservation  and 
increase  of  sheep.     Residents  were  urged  to  purchase  im- 
ported ewes,  and  friends  in  England  meaning  to  come  over 
were  advised  to  bring  with  them  ''  as  many  sheep  as  they 


Bradford, 
243- 


Winthrop, 
Hist,  of 
New 
England, 
I.  55-57- 


Bagnall, 
Textile 
Industries 
of  U.S., 
I,  Ch.  I,  II. 


Abbott, 
Women  in 
Industry, 

Ch.  n. 


Col.  Laws 
of  Mass., 
141. 


Weeden, 
I,  165-178. 

Bishop, 

I.  Ch.  xr 


J 


Weeden, 

I,  387-394- 

American 
Husbandry, 

II,  257-267. 

Bishop, 
I,  314- 


Callender, 
2g-4^ 


Doc.  Hist, 
of  New  York, 
I.  711-712. 


66        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

conveniently  can."     Connecticut  enacted  similar  laws  for 
increasing  the  supply  of  flax  and  wool. 

The  raw  material  once  available,  the  people  were  soon 
able  to  manufacture  their  own  clothing.     Every  farmhouse 
kitchen  was  a  workshop  where  the  women  spun  and  wove 
the  serges,  kerseys,  and  linsey-woolseys,  which  served  for 
common  wear.     By  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century 
New  England  manufactured  cloth  in  sufiicient  quantities 
for  exportation  to  the  Southern  colonies  and  to  the  West 
Indies.    As  the  industry  developed,    mills  were  erected 
for  the  more  difficult  processes  of   dyeing,   weaving,  and 
fulling,  but  the  carding  and  spinning  continued  to  be  done 
in  the  homes.     The  Dutch  of   New  Netherland  and  the 
Swedes  along  the  Delaware  were  no  whit   behind  their 
Yankee  neighbors.     In  Pennsylvania  prizes  were  offered 
for  the  finest  weaves  of  cloth,  and  the  artisans  of  Phila- 
delphia acquired  an  enviable  fame. 
^Rgstdclive  Legjslatios^  —  So  long  as  the  colonists  con- 
fined themselves  to  making  coarse  cloth  for  family  use, 
the  British  government  showed  no   concern;    but   when 
goods  of  finer  grade  began  to  be  woven  and   offered  for 
general  sale,  the  English  woolen  manufacturers  became 
alarmed  lest  their  colonial  market  suffer.    Lord  Cornbury, 
the  avaricious  and  despotic  governor  of  New  York  (170a- 
1708),  reported  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  "  I  am  well  in- 
formed, that  upon  Long  Island  and  Connecticut,  they  are 
setting  up  a  Woollen  Manufacture,  and  I  myself  have  seen 
Serge  made  upon  Long  Island  that  any  man  may  wear. 
Now  if  they  begin  to  make  Serge,  they  will  in  time  make 
Course  \sic\  Cloth,  and  then  fine ;  we  have  as  good  fullers 
earth  and  tobacco  pipe  clay  in  this  Province,  as  any  in  the 
world ;  how  farr  this  will  be  for  the  service  of  England  I 
submit  to  better  Judgments ;   but  however  I  hof»e  I  may 
be  pardoned  if  I  declare  my  opinion  to  be,  that  all  these 
Colloneys  which  are  but  twigs  belonging  to  the  Main  Tree 
[England]  ought  to  be  Kept  entirely  dependent  upon  & 
subservient  to  England,  and  that  can  never  be  if  they  are 
suffered  to  goe  on  in  the  notions  they  have,  that  as  they  are 


Development  under  British  Control 


67 


Englishmen,  soe  they  may  set  up  the  same  manufactures 
here  as  people  may  do  in  England ;  for  the  consequence 
will  be  that  if  once  they  can  cloath  themselves,  not  only 
comfortably  but  handsomely  too,  without  the  help  of  Eng- 
land, they  who  are  already  not  very  fond  of  submitting  to 
Government  would  soon  think  of  putting  in  Execution  de- 
signs they  had  long  harboured  in  their  breasts.  This  will 
not  seem  strange  when  you  consider  what  sort  of  people 
this  Country  is  inhabited  by." 

In  accordance  with  the  recommendations  of  the  lord 
commissioners.  Parliament  passed  the  Woolen  Act  (1699). 
No  woolen  goods  might  be  exported  from  the  colonies,  nor 
sent  from  one  colony  to  another,  nor  from  place  to  place 
in  the  same  colony  with  purpose  to  sell.  In  the  following 
year  the  duty  on  woolens  imported  from  England  was 
removed.  The  result  of  this  legislation  was  to  check  the 
manufacture  of  cloth  for  sale  and  to  prolong  for  a  century 
the  hold  of  the  English  woolen  merchants  on  the  American 
trade.  Fully  half  the  exports  to  the  colonies  were  woolen 
goods. 

To  a  self-supporting  community  leather  is  hardly  less  Bishop, 
important  than  cloth.  There  was  an  ample  supply  of  the  !>  Ch.  XVI. 
raw  material  in  all  the  colonies,  and  deerskins  and  the 
hides  of  cattle  and  sheep  were  early  utilized.  The  first 
tannery  in  New  England  was  erected  at  Lynn  in  1629.  In 
the  same  year  a  shoemaker  was  sent  over  to  Massachusetts 
Bay  by  the  Plymouth  Company.  The  community  gave 
him  fifty  acres  of  land  and  £10  a  year  for  his  services.  In 
1635  Lynn  set  upon  the  manufacture  of  shoes  and  soon 
became  famous  for  the  excellence  of  its  product. 

Great  pains  were  taken  to  secure  a  sufiicient  stock  of 
leather.  In  1640  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
enjoined  upon  the  population  the  preservation  of  hides. 
"  Whereas  we  are  informed  of  the  neglect  of  many  in  not 
saving  such  hides  and  skins  as  by  casualty  or  slaughter 
come  to  hand,"  it  was  ordained  that  every  hide  must  be  sent 
to  a  tannery  under  a  penalty  of  a  £12  fine,  and  leather 
searchers  were  appointed  by  each  town  whose  duty  it  was 


Bishop, 
I,  340-343- 


American 
Husbandry, 

I,  256-258; 

II,  34-41- 


68        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

to  enforce  the  statute.     No  hides  or  unwrought  leather 
might  be  exported  from  the  colony.     So  successful  was 
this  poUcy  that  by  1650  Massachusetts  was  manufactunng 
shoes  for  sale  in  the  other  colonies.     Like  the  making  of 
cloth,  this  was  in  those  days  a  domestic  industry,  and 
furnished  a  profitable  winter  occupation  for  the  men  and 
boys  of  the  household.     Many  a  New  England  farm  still 
preserves  among  its  outhouses  the  diminutive  shoe  shop 
where  this  work  was  carried  on.     In  the  middle  colomes, 
too,  leather  manufactures  were  early  developed.    The  m- 
dustry  was  of  prime  importance,  since  not  only  boots  and 
shoes,  but  coats,  vests,  doublets,  breeches,  and  stockmgs 
were  made  of  leather,  especially  for  servants'  use.    Even 
women's   skirts   and   aprons   were   fashioned   from   this 

durable  material.  j.  ^.    4. 

The  abundance  of  beaver  gave  the  colomsts  a  distmct 
advantage  in  the  m.anufacture  of  hats.     In  response  to 
a  petition  from  the  felt  makers  of  London,  Parliament 
instituted  an  inquiry  (1731)  and  learned  that  ten  thousand 
hats  a  year  were  produced  in  New  England  and  New  York. 
In  Boston  alone  there  were  sixteen  hatters,  one  of  whom 
made  on  an  average  forty  hats  a  week.     The  goods  were 
exported  not  only  to  the  Southern  colonies  and  the  West 
Indies,  but  to  Ireland,  Spain,  and  Portugal,  where  they 
came  into  competition  with  English-made  hats.    T  o  guard 
the  home  industry,  Pariiament  promptly  ordered  that    no 
hats  or  felts,  dyed  or  undyed,  finished  or  unfinished, 
should  be  "  put  upon  any  vessel  or  laded  upon  any  horse 
or  cart  with  intent  to  export  to  any  place  whatsoever. 
Persons  undertaking  such  trade  were  to  forfeit  £500  for 
every  offense.     No  negro  could  be  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  hats,  and  no  white  man  who  had  not  served 
seven  years'  apprenticeship.    These  restrictions  well-mgh 
ruined  the  nascent  industry. 

The  products  of  the  Southern  colonies  did  not  come 
into  conflict  with  English  interests.  Preoccui)ation  m 
the  raising  of  a  few  staples  prevented  the  planters  from 
undertaking  manufactures.    The  several  legislatures  en- 


Development  under  British  Control 


69 


acted  statutes  to  encourage  the  production  of  raw  materials, 
such  as  hides  and  wool,  and  offered  bounties  on  linens,' 
woolens,  hats,  hose,  etc.,  but  all  to  no  avail.    Nothing 
but  the  roughest  cloth  for  the  use  of  slaves  was  woven  on 
the  plantations.     The  by-industries  of  the  New  England 
farmhouse  could  not  well  be  developed  with  unintelligent 
slave  labor.     WriUng  in  1705,  Robert  Beveriey  protested 
against    this   extravagant    policy.      "They    have    their 
clothing  of  all  sorts  from  England ;   as  linen,  woolen  and 
and  silk,  hats,  and  leather.    Yet  flax  and   hemp    grow 
nowhere  in  the  worid  better  than  there.    Their  sheep  yield 
good  increase,  and  bear  good  fleeces ;  but  they  shear  them 
only  to  cool  them.     The  mulberry  tree,  whose  leaf  is  the 
proper  food  of  the  silkworm,  grows  there  like  a  weed,  and 
silkworms  have  been  observed  to  thrive   extremely,'  and 
without  hazard.     The  very  furs  that  their  hats  are  made 
of  perhaps  go  first  from  thence ;   and  most  of  their  hides 
lie  and  rot,  or  are  made  use  of  only  for  covering  dry  goods 
in  a  leaky  house.    Indeed,  some  few  hides  with  much  ado 
are  tanned  and  made  into  servants'  shoes,  but  at  so  careless 
a  rate,  that  the  planters  don't  care  to  buy  them  if  they  can 
get  others ;  and  sometimes  perhaps  a  better  manager  than 
ordinary  will  vouchsafe  to  make  a  pair  of  breeches  of  a 
deerskin.     Nay,  they  are  such  abominably  iU  husbands, 
that  though  their  country  be  overrun  with  wood,  yet  have 
they  all  their  wooden  ware  from  England ;  their  cabinets, 
chairs,  tables,  stools,  chests,  boxes,  cart  wheels,  and  all 
other  things,  even  so  much  as  their  bowls  and  birchen 
brooms,  to  the  eternal  reproach  of  their  laziness."     The 
wasteful  habits  of  the  Southern  planters  suited  the  English 
merchants  and  manufacturers  far  better  than  New  Eng- 
land thrift.  ^ 
The  cost  of  importing   iron  manufactures,  nails,  agri- 
cultural implements,  firearms,  anchors,  chains,  etc.,  was 
so  high  that  the  colonists  eariy  undertook  to  provide  them- 
selves  with  these  essential  commodities.     There  was  a 
ferruginous  deposit  in  the  swamps  and  ponds  all    along 
the  coast  from  which  iron  of  good  quality  might  be  pro- 


PhilUps, 
I,  186-193. 


Beverley, 
Bk.  IV. 
Ch.  XVII, 
XVIII. 


Bishop, 

I,  Ch.  XVII 

Swank, 
Hist.  Manf. 
of  Iron, 
Ch.  X,  XI. 


yo        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

duced.    John  Winthrop,  Junior,  one  of  the  enterprising 
business  men  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  secured  capital  and 
skilled  laborers  from  England,  and  erected  (1643)  ^  smelting 
furnace  near  Lynn.     The  ore  was  got  from  Saugus  Pond, 
wood  for  charcoal  and  water  power  for  the  blast  furnace 
were  near  at  hand,  and  the  works  were  soon  turning  out 
seven  tons  of  pig  iron  per  week.     A  forge  for  the  refining 
of  the  ore  was  set  up  in  1648,  and  a  foundry  for  casting 
soon  followed.     Joseph  Jenks,  one  of  the  workmen  brought 
over  from  Hammersmith,   designed  important    improve- 
ments in  scythes,  sawmill  machinery,  etc.,   and   was  a 
considerable  factor  in  the  success  of  the  Lynn   works. 
For  twenty-five  years  farm  tools  and  domestic  utensils 
sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  growing  communities  in 
eastern  Massachusetts  were  manufactured  here.     Then, 
the  supply  of  bog  iron  and  of  charcoal  failing,  the  enterprise 
was  abandoned.    The  General  Court  granted  three  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  in  Braintree  to  Winthrop  and  his  partners 
in  the  hope  of  developing  the  manufacture  of  iron  from  the 
bogs  of  Monontocot  River,  but  this  ore  deposit  was  ex- 
hausted within  ten  years,  and  the  works  were  abandoned. 
More  successful  was  the  furnace  built  at  Raynham  (1656) 
by  the  Leonard  Brothers,  EngUsh  forgemen  first  employed 
by  the  Lynn  Company.    The  adjacent  marshes  sufficed 
for  this  and  several  other  foundries  in  the  town  of  Taunton. 
Somewhat  later  iron  works  were  erected  at  Great  Barring- 
ton  (1731)  and  Lenox  (1765)  in  the  Berkshires.     For  the 
first  century  of  our  history,  Massachusetts  was  the  center 
of  the  iron  industry,  but   the  other  New  England  colonies 
were  not  far-behind.     Rhode  Island  had  an  iron  foundry 
at  Pawtucket,  set  up  by  Joseph  Jenks.    John  Winthrop 
moved  to  the  Connecticut  Valley  in  1645  and  b(?gan  the 
smelting  of  iron  at  New  London  and  New  Haven  (1658). 
The  General  Court  granted  exemption  from  taxation  to 
all  persons  and  property  engaged  in  this  important  enter- 
prise.   The  hill  country  of  Connecticut  proved  to  contain 
valuable  deposits  of  hematite  ore,  and  the  iron  mines  of 
Litchfield  County  soon  gave  Connecticut  precedence  over 


Development  under  British  Control 


71 


Massachusetts.    A  forge  erected  at  Lime  Rock  in  1734 
has  been  in  continuous  operation  to  the  present  day. 

The  manufacture  of  nails  and  tacks  was  a  domestic  in- 
dustry that  brought  in  considerable  revenue  to  the  farmers 
of  New  England.  A  small  furnace  was  set  up  in  the 
chimney  corner,  and  in  the  winter  season  great  quantities 
of  naHs  and  tacks  were  hammered  out  by  the  men  and  boys 
who  would  otherwise  have  been  idle.  With  anvil  and 
hammer  a  man  could  make  two  thousand  tacks  in  a  day. 
The  rod  iron  was  furnished  by  a  neighboring  sUtdng  mill 
whose  proprietor  paid  the  nailmakers  for  their  work  and 
marketed  the  product. 

There  was  no  smelting  of  iron  in  New  York  until  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  Ancram  works 
were   established   on   Livingston   Manor.     The   ore   was 
carried  down  from  the  Connecticut  hills.     The  rich  de- 
posits of  Orange  County,  New  Jersey,  were  developed  before 
the  Revolution.     One  of  the  Leonards  began  the  smelting 
of  bog  iron  at  Shrewsbury  in  1674,  but  the  magnetic  ores 
were  not  discovered  until  17 10.    This  valuable  mineral 
was  mined  in  the  Highlands  and  carried  in  leather  bags  on 
pack  horses  to  the  works  at  Whippany  on  the  Passaic 
River.    The  bar  iron  was  transported  in  the  same  toilsome 
fashion  across  the  Orange  Mountains  to  Newark  for  sale. 
A  large  part  of  this  product,  as  well  as  that  of  the  New  York 
works,  was  shipped  to  England,  and,  since  bar  iron  brought 
£20  per  ton,  it  was  a  profitable  export.     Copper  veins 
were  discovered  in  the  same  metalliferous  range  and  suc- 
cessfully worked  by  the  Schuylers,  who  exported  the  ore, 
whxh  was  worth  £40  per  ton,  to  Bristol,  England.     The 
settlers  of  eastern  Pennsylvania  began  to  smelt  iron  ore 
and  to  cast  stoves  and  rough  utensils  eariy  in  the  eighteenth 
century.     Some  ore  was  mined  along  the  Delaware  and 
Susquehanna  rivers,  but  the  surpassingly  rich  deposits 
of  the  AUeghanies  were  not  opened  up  till  the  nineteenth 
century. 

Iron  ore  was  one  of  the  commodities  shipped  from  ^"^^^^^ 
Jamestown  in  1608,  and  the  London  Company  anticipated  ^l 


72        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

rich  returns  from  this  source.    In  1619  skilled  workmen 
were  sent  over  to  "  set  up  three  iron  works  "  in  Virginia, 
Bishop,  and  two  years  later  John  Berkley,  "  gentleman,"  came  out 

I,  Ch.  XVIII.  to  take  charge  of  the  enterprise.  Rich  deposits  of  bog  iron 
were  found  on  Falling  Creek,  near  Richmond,  and  a  furnace 
was  built,  but  in  the  Indian  massacre  of  1622  works  and 
workmen  were  destroyed.  The  manufacture  of  iron  was 
not  resumed  until  a  hundred  years  later,  when  under  the 
auspices  of  Governor  Spotswood,  "  the  Tubal  Cain  of 
Virginia,"  the  industry  was  placed  on  a  stable  foundation. 
Six  hundred  tons  of  iron  were  smelted  in  Spotswood's 
furnace  in  1760.  Furnaces  were  built  at  the  falls  of  the 
James  River  near  Richmond  and  on  the  Rappahannock 
near  Fredericksburg.  Here  the  ore  was  blasted  from  rocks 
near  the  surface  and  carried  in  baskets  to  the  furnace. 
Some  of  the  Virginia  output  was  cast  into  domestic  \itensils, 
but  the  greater  part  was  exported  to  England  in  pigs  and 
bars.  The  House  of  Burgesses  assisted  in  the  develop- 
ment of  these  mines  by  grants  of  land  and  by  the  construc- 
tion of  roads. 

The  Maryland  Assembly  offered  (17 19)  one  hundred 
acres  of  land  to  any  citizen  setting  up  furnaces  and  forges 
in  the  province.  The  first  undertaking  was  made  at  the 
head  of  Chesapeake  Bay  by  the  falls  on  Principio  Creek, 
capital  and  workmen  being  provided  from  England. 
The  men  were  convicts  sent  over  to  serve  out  their  term 
and  the  initial  management  was  dishonest,  but  after  years 
of  disheartening  effort,  the  enterprise  was  made  to  pay  a 
considerable  revenue.  The  greater  part  of  the  pig  iron 
exported  to  England  was  shipped  by  this  company.  The 
Principio  furnaces  and  Governor  Spotswood's  mines  were 
the  only  iron  works  of  any  importance  south  of  l^ennsyl- 
vania,  and  these  were  engaged  in  the  production  of  pig  and 
bar  iron  rather  than  in  manufacture. 

Restrictive  Legislation.  —  Now  it  happened  that  in 
England  the  iron  industry  was  hampered  by  lack  of  raw 
material.  The  ore  of  Sussex  and  the  supply  of  charcoal 
from  the  Weald  were  neariy  exhausted,  and  the  resources 


Development  under  British  Control 


73 


of  the  "  black  country  "  were  still  unknown.     Fully  half 
of  the  pig  iron  consumed  in  the  furnaces  of  Sheffield  was 
imported   from    Sweden    and    Russia.     The   ironmasters 
bethought  them  that  the  supply  might  be  had  more  cheaply 
from  the  colonies,  and  they  urged  upon  Parliament  the 
desirability    of    appropriate    legislaUon.     It    was   hoped  Bishop, 
that  the  twenty  thousand  tons  a  year  needed  to  keep  the  i.  623-628. 
English   foundries  going   might   be  had   from   America, 
where  fuel  and  water  power  were  abundant  and  the  cost 
of  production  low.     Pig  iron  imported  from  the  colonies 
could  be  paid  for  in  manufactures,  and  thus  another  busi- 
ness interest  would  secure  an  advantage.     The  act  of  1750 
provided  that  pig  iron  imported  from  America  might  come 
into  any  British  port  duty  free,  while  bar  iron  was  made 
duty  free  at  the  port  of  London.     Since  European  imports 
were  subject  to  high  duties,  this  gave  an  important  ad- 
vantage to  colonial  smelters  and  induced  a  considerable 
increase  in  the  shipments.     The  interests  of  the  British 
manufacturers  were  further  guarded  by  the  stipulation 
that  "  no  mill  or  other  engine  for  slitting  or  rolling  of  iron, 
no  plating  forge  to  work  with  a  tilthammer,  and  no  furnace 
for  making  steel"  should  be  erected   ''in    any  of    His 
Majesty's  colonies  in  America."     Mills  already  established 
were  to  be  deemed  a  public  nuisance.     The  effect  of  this 
legislation  was  a  serious  check  to  the  development  of  iron 
manufactures  in  the  colonies. 


310-314. 


Commerce 

Wagon   Roads. —The   surplus   products   of   industry,  Weeden. 
beaver  skins,  tobacco,  or  lumber,  mean  much  or  httle  i.  "o-i'is, 
to  the  producer,  according  to  his  chances  of  getting  them   ''°5-2i2, 
to  market.     The  Atlantic  coast  colonies  were  fortunate 
in  their  commercial  opportunities.     The  short  rapid  rivers 
of  New  England  are  not  usually  navigable  for  freight  boats 
more  than  a  few  miles  above  tidewater.      By  dint  of  nu- 
merous carries  the  Charies,  the  Merrimac,  the  Penobscot, 
and  the  Housatonic  were  made  to  serve  the  needs  of  local 


Madame 
Knight's 
Journal. 


74        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

traffic,  but  the  Connecticut  was  the  only  New  England 
river  that  played  any  considerable  part  in  general  trade. 
Sea-going  vessels  made  their  way  up  this  river  to  Hartford, 
where  the  freight  was  transferred  to  scows  and  rafts  and 
so   conveyed   to  Windsor  Locks.     As   the  interior  was 
settled,  it  became  necessary  to  supplement  the  waterways 
by  roads.     In  1639  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
ordered  that  each  town  should  construct  a  highway  to 
connect  with  that  of  the  adjoining  town,  and  the  Bay 
Road  from  Boston  through  Salem  and  Ipswich  to  Newbury 
was  built  this  year.     In  1654  land  communication  was 
established  with  the  Providence  Plantations  by  means  of 
the  Common  Road  that  ran  through  Pawtucket  Falls  and 
Rehoboth.     The  Shore  Road  connected  Providence  with 
the  settlements  along  the  Connecticut  coast  and  with  New 
York.    The  Hartford  Trail  struck  into  the  interior  through 
Dedham,  Dover,  and    Medfield  to  Hartford,   while  the 
Lancaster   Road  was   carried   directly  west.    The   road 
builders  often  took  advantage  of  the  Indian  trails,  widening 
the  footpath  to  a  bridle  path  and  later  to  a  wagon  road. 
It  was  a  task  of  enormous  difficulty  where  able-bodied 
men  were  so  few,  and  material  obstructions  were  but  little 
modified.     Hills  could  not  be  leveled  nor  marshes  drained, 
nor  could  wagon  bridges  be  built  except  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  a  populous  town.     The  Great  Bri<lge  from 
Boston  to  Cambridge  was  completed  in  1662,  but  the  public 
coach  was  not  put  on  the  road  till  seven  years  later.    In 
1704  Madame  Knight  made  the  greater  part  of  the  journey 
from  Boston  to  New  York  on  horseback  and   told  an 
amusing  tale  of  the  horrors  of  the  route.    Transportation 
by  land  was  much  more  costly  than  by  water.     The  freight 
on  a  bushel  of  grain  from  Northampton  by  wagon  to  Wind- 
sor Locks  was  one  shilling,  from  the  Locks  to  Hartford  by 
river  scow,  twopence,  from  Hartford  to  Boston  by  sailing 
vessel,  sixpence. 

In  transportation  by  sea,  New  England  had  the  great 
advantage  of  convenient  harbors.  Wherever  a  river  met 
the  tide,  seaports  such  as  Portland,  Portsmouth,  Boston, 


Development  tinder  British  Control 


75 


76        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Development  under  British  Control 


77 


BoUes, 
Pennsyl- 
vania, 
II,  Ch.  XVII 


Weeden, 

I,  88-97. 
129-140. 


Winthrop, 
I,  132,  13s 


and  Newport  prosecuted  a  thriving  trade.  Goods  brought 
down  from  the  farms  by  boat  or  wagon  were  loaded  on  to 
vessels  bound  for  England  or  the  West  Indies.  Long 
Island  Sound  conducted  the  traffic  of  New  England  to  the 
great  harbor  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson. 

The  waterways  of  New  York  and  the  middle  colonies 
were  unrivaled  in  the  British  possessions.    The  Hudson 
was  navigable  for  ocean  vessels  as  far  as  Albany,  and  the 
connection  thence  by  way  of  Lakes  George  and  Champlain 
to  the  St.  Lawrence  was  easily  made.     Where  the  Mohawk 
breaks  through  the  Appalachian  range,  an  elevated  plain 
led  to  Lake  Ontario.     By  this  gateway  the  Iroquois  trail 
crossed  to  the  Hudson  and  thence  to  Manhattan,  and  the 
pioneers  easily  widened  the  trail  into  a  wagon  road.    The 
Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna  were  waterways  of  prime 
importance  to  the  settlers  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey. 
The  King's  Path  led  from  Perth  Amboy  to  navigable  water 
at  Philadelphia,  and  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware  bays 
were  connected  by  wagon  road.     These  exceptional  trans- 
portation facUities  gave  rise  to  the  ports  of  Philadelphia 
and  Baltimore. 

Waterways  served  so  well  the  purposes  of  the  plantation 
trade  that  the  men  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolina  s  made 
little  effort  to  build  roads.  The  higher  lands  between  the 
river  bottoms  were  comparatively  barren  and  were  there- 
fore unappropriated,  or,  where  included  in  a  grant,  were 
utilized  as  cattle  ranges.  Cross-country  trade  was  in- 
frequent and  difficult,  hence  there  were  no  towns  of  im- 
portance in  the  interior.  Only  where  a  produce-laden  river 
joined  the  sea  could  commerce  develop.  Norfolk, 
Charleston,  and  Savannah  were  first-rate  ports. 

The  Coastwise  Trade.  —  The  first  commercial  ventures 
were  made  in  the  Indian  trade.  The  settlers  sold  corn 
and  other  foodstuffs,  beads  and  trinkets,  shirts  and  blan- 
kets, to  the  neighboring  savages,  while  firearms,  gun- 
powder and  rum,  though  forbidden  by  the  home  govern- 
ment, made  a  considerable  item  in  the  stock  of  an  Indian 
trader.    The  redskins  offered  in  exchange  game  and  furs. 


Twenty  beaver  skins  was  the  price  of  a  musket  along  the 
Mohawk  River.  Plymouth  colony  had  trading  posts  on 
the  Kennebec  and  Connecticut  rivers,  the  men  of  Boston 
on  the  Penobscot  and  the  Merrimac.  The  colonists  came 
into  sharp  competition  with  the  Dutch  on  the  Hudson 
and  with  the  French  in  Maine.  The  Dutch  pretensions 
came  to  an  end  in  1664,  but  the  French  voyageurs  had 
penetrated  the  upper  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes. 
Their  ascendancy  with  the  Indian  tribes  gave  them  con- 
trol of  the  fur  trade,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century  the 
traffic  was  well-nigh  engrossed  by  these  skillful  diplomats. 

The  fishing  stations  along  the  New  England  coast 
afforded  an  increasingly  lucrative  commerce.  At  Piscata- 
qua  and  Pemaquid,'and  the  fishing  villages  of  Cape  Ann, 
on  Sable  Island,  and  among  the  French  traders  on  the  Cana- 
dian rivers,  there  was  a  steady  demand  for  corn,  salt  pork, 
and  other  supplies.  In  the  Southern  colonies,  too,  there 
was  a  ready  market  for  the  products  of  Yankee  industry, 
—  cereals,  live  stock,  shoes,  and  woolens.  The  merchants 
received  in  exchange  tobacco,  leather,  timber,  tar,  and 
wheat.  Trade  with  New  Netherland  was  contraband 
until  1664,  but  much  clandestine  commerce  was  carried  on. 
The  men  of  Plymouth  had  a  trading  post  at  Manomet  in 
Buzzard's  Bay,  where  they  stored  their  goods,  tobacco 
(brought  from  Virginia),  planks  and  pipe-staves,  sack  and 
rum,  and  received  in  exchange  sheep,  beaver  skins,  sugar, 
and  linen  cloth,  and  their  factories  on  the  Connecticut 
River  were  no  less  prosperous.  In  1642  a  fine  stone  tavern 
was  built  on  East  River  to  take  advantage  of  the  custom 
of  the  many  strangers  who  touched  at  New  Amsterdam  on 
their  way  from  New  England  to  Virginia. 

The  West  India  Trade.  —  For  few  of  the  products  of 
New  England  was  there  a  market  in  the  mother  country. 
Cereals,  meat,  and  fish  were  English  staples,  and  so  far 
^as  these  goods  were  sent  to  England  they  came  into  com- 
petition with  domestic  products.  The  Corn  Law  of  1689 
imposed  duties  on  grains  that  were  practically  prohibitory  ; 
and  other  legislation  forbade  the  importation  into  England 


Docs.  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
IV.  210. 


Bradford, 
266,  281. 


O'Callaghan, 
New  Nether- 
land, 259. 


Weeden, 
I,  142-164. 


Callender, 
16-20. 


Weeden, 
II,  Ch.  XII. 


Phillips, 
n.  49-53- 


Abbot, 
Ch.  m. 


Felt. 

Annals  of 
Salem, 
II,  289. 


Weeden, 

I,  232-244, 
337-378 ; 

II,  552-594, 
607-623, 
641-665. 


78        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  salted  beef  and  pork.  The  only  profitable  market  for 
the  surplus  crops  of  New  England  was  in  the  West  Indies. 
There  her  flour,  fish,  and  lumber,  her  woolen  and  leather 
manufactures,  were  in  great  demand  and  could  be  ex- 
changed for  sugar,  molasses,  cotton  wool,  dyestufTs,  etc.,  — 
the  surplus  products  of  a  tropic  clime.  Brought  back  to 
Boston  and  Newport  the  molasses  was  made  over  into 
rum,  and  the  cotton  and  dyestuffs  into  cloth,  commodities 
that  could  be  marketed  at  a  considerable  advance  in 
price.  The  Bermudas  sent  potatoes  and  other  vegetables, 
oranges  and  limes,  luxuries  for  which  the  coast  colonies 
were  their  only  market.  The  exports  of  the  middle  colo- 
nies, grain,  salt  meat,  and  lumber,  were  also  sent  to  the 
Caribbeans.  The  Southern  colonies  sent  nothing  to  the 
West  Indies  and  required  nothing  thence  ;  hence  trade 
with  the  islands  was  confined  to  the  Northern  ports. 

The  Slave  Trade.  —  The  monopoly  of  the  Royal  African 
Company  was  broken  in  1698,  and  this  lucrativt.^  com- 
mercial opportunity  was  thrown  open  to  any  vessel  flying 
the  British  flag.  The  traders  of  New  England  (juickly 
secured  their  full  share.  Sloops  from  Boston,  Nev^port, 
and  Bristol  sailed  for  the  Gold  Coast  laden  with  hogsheads 
of  rum.  This  was  exchanged  for  captive  negroes,  or, 
perchance,  for  bars  of  gold  and  iron.  The  wretched  human 
freight  was  carried  to  the  West  Indies  and  traded  for  sugar 
and  molasses,  or  to  Virginia,  where  negroes  brought  a  good 
price  in  tobacco.  Either  cargo  could  be  disposed  of  to 
advantage  on  returning  to  the  home  port,  and  the  profits  of 
this  triangular  commerce  were  enormous.  A  sla>'e  pur- 
chased for  one  hundred  gallons  of  rum  worth  £10  brought 
from  £20  to  £50  when  offered  for  sale  in  America.  New- 
port could  not,  with  her  twenty-two  still  houses,  manu- 
facture rum  enough  to  meet  the  demand. 

Transatlantic  Trade.  —  Old  World  markets  offered 
a  steady  demand  for  the  agricultural  products  of  America, 
Fish,  timber,  furs,  and  tobacco  made  the  bulk  of  the  home^ 
bound  cargoes  in  the  seventeenth  century ;  whale  oil  and 
whalebone,   cider,   rum,   and  rice  figured  largely  in  the 


Development  under  British  Control 


79 


exports  of  the  eighteenth.  Returning  vessels  brought 
linen  and  woolen  goods  from  England  and  Holland,  iron 
and  wool  from  Spain,  salt  from  Portugal,  spices  from  the 
Mediterranean,  wine  and  fruit  from  Madeira  and  the 
Canary  Islands.  Each  shipmaster  (English,  Dutch,  or 
Spanish),  selected  the  goods  that  he  thought  most  likely 
to  find  purchasers  in  the  colonies,  and,  once  arrived  in  an 
American  port,  was  fain  to  take  in  exchange  whatever 
salable  commodities  were  there  to  be  had.  In  the  search 
for  a  market  for  the  tobacco,  pipe-staves,  beaver,  or  salt 
cod  taken  aboard,  he  might  steer  for  England  or  the  West 
Indies  or  the  Mediterranean  as  he  saw  fit.  A  vessel  not 
infrequently  spent  years  in  this  roundabout  trade  before 
returning  to  her  home  port. 

Restrictive  Legislation.  —  The  colonial  policy  of  Eng- 
land during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  was 
dictated  by  the  theory  that  settlements  were  ''planta- 
tions "  whose  industries  must  serve  British  interests. 
No  mines  producing  gold  and  silver  had  been  discovered, 
but  money  could  be  coined  in  trade.  Tobacco,  for  example, 
by  legislation  of  1621,  might  be  ex-ported  only  in  English 
ships  and  to  English  ports,  where  a  duty  varying  from  one 
to  threepence  a  pound  was  levied.  In  due  course  this 
restricted  market  was  overstocked,  and  the  price  fell  from 
three  shillings  per  pound  in  16 19  to  twopence  per  pound 
in  1704.  The  tobacco  planter  was  denied  direct  access 
to  the  Continent,  where  prices  ranged  much  higher. 
Coastwise  traffic  was  subject  to  a  provincial  duty  of  a 
penny  a  pound,  but  this  tax  was  frequently  evaded.  It 
was  not  a  diflicult  matter  to  load  the  hogsheads  on  to 
lighters  and  take  them  out  under  cover  of  night  to  the 
trader  that  lay  off  the  coast  waiting  for  the  clandestine 
freight.  Smuggling,  in  the  mind  of  the  outraged  planter, 
was  an  entirely  legitimate  method  of  getting  a  fair  price 
for  his  crop,  and  British  men-of-war  patrolled  the  coast 
in  vain.  The  bayous  of  the  Chesapeake  nourished  a  breed 
of  nimble  sailors  who  gloried  in  outwitting  the  customs 
officers.    One  of  these  pirates  scuttled  his  schooner  to 


\\. 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 
317-328. 


Rabbeno, 
American 
Commercial 
Policy, 
3-21,  48-91 

Beer, 
347,  349- 


8o        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


8 


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N.  HAMPSHIRE 
C6NN.  • 
r^HODE  ISLANC 
NEW  YORK 
NEW  JERSEY 
PENN.  * 
DELAWARE  * 
MARYLAND 
VIRGINIA 
N.CAROUNA 
8.  CAROUNA 
GEORGIA 


m 


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» 


m 


ESTIMATED  POPULATION  OF  THE  COLONIES  1  754  AND  1775 

\  I      ESTIMATED  POPULATION  175* 

^^     ESTIMATED  INCREASE,  1754- 1775 

*  ESTIMATE  FOR  PENNSYLVANIA  FOR  17S4  INCLUDES  OELAWAH 


m 
8 
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NEW  ENGLAND 
MEW  YORK 

PENNSYLVANIA 

VIRGINIA  AND 
MARYLAND 

N.  CAROLINA 

B.CAROLINA 

GCORQIA 


n:3  tm  MEATS  OF  DIFFERENT 

LJ  WHALE  &  COD  OIL        ILlJ  kinqS 

^COD  FISH  Hi  MACKEREL  tt  SHAD 

SmaSTS,BOARDS,ETC.    □  BEES-WAX 
^SHIPS  BUILT  ^WHALEBONE 

DuVE  STOCK  *  HORSES^  FLOUR  A  WHEAT 


la  COPPER  ORE,  &  IRON 

S  FLAX  SEED  &  HEMP 

CH  DEER  &  OTHER  SKINS 

Wi  TOBACCO 

^  PITCH,  TAR  a^  TURPENTINE 


^POTASH 

lDinoigo 


I  BEANS  PEASE  A  GRAINS  O  RICE 
I  MISCELLANEOUS 


Colonial  Exports,  Annual  Average,  1763-1773 


^  Development  under  Bidtish  Control 


81 


elude  his  pursuer  and  brought  her  to  the  surface  again 
when  the  danger  was  past,  none  the  worse  for  a  ducking. 

The  Navigation  Acts.  —  England's  jealousy  of  the  Dutch 
carrying  trade  determined  a  policy  that  has  had  far-reach- 
ing influence  on  British  and  American  shipping.     In  165 1 
Cromwell's  Parliament  enacted  a  law  that  was  reenforced 
(1660)  immediately  after  the  Restoration.     The  monopoly 
of  British  trade  was  given  to  vessels  built  and  manned  by 
British  subjects.     No  products  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  America 
might  be  imported  into  Great  Britain  or  any  of  her  do- 
minions except  in  English  ships.     No  European  products 
might  be  imported  except  in  English  ships  or  in  ships 
owned  in  the  'country  where  the  goods  were  produced. 
All  imports  must  be  shipped  direct  from  the  country  where 
they  were  grown  or  manufactured,  and  not  from  an  in- 
termediate port.     The  provision  that  vessels  violating  any 
clause  of  this  act  were  liable  to  seizure  and  confiscation, 
together  with  the  contraband  cargo,  brought  on  war  with 
Holland.     After  the  loss  of  New  Amsterdam,  Holland's 
flourishing  trade  with  the  British  colonies  shrank  to  meager 
proportions,  and  English  vessels,  whether  built  in  Great 
Britain  or  in  America,  fell  heir  to  the  Atlantic  carrying 
trade.     This   practical   monopoly   of   colonial   commerce 
meant  an  advance  in  freight  rates,  since  the  merchant 
ships  were  not  at  first  adequate  to  the  traflSic ;  but  the  loss 
was  soon  made  good  to  the  colonies  in  the  new  impulse 
given  to  shipbuilding. 

Colonial  Shipping.  —  American  shipyards  had  impor- 
tant advantages  over  those  of  Great  Britain.  Materials 
of  the  best  quality  were  to  be  had  at  little  cost.  Masts 
of  fir  and  planks  of  oak  were  supplied  from  primeval 
forests,  everywhere  there  was  pitch  pine  for  the  making 
of  tar  and  turpentine,  and  hemp  for  cordage  was  soon 
provided.  The  rivers  furnished  water  power  for  sawmills 
and  brought  lumber  down  to  the  harbors  where  the  ships 
were  built  and  launched,  while  the  necessity  for  exercising 
a  variety  of  crafts  had  developed  in  the  colonists  the 
Yankee  knack  that  made  them  excellent  shipwrights. 


Beer, 
327-340. 


Weeden, 
I,  232-244. 

Macdonald, 
Select 
Charters, 
106-116. 

Andrews, 
Colonis.! 
Self-Gov- 
emment, 
Ch.  I. 


Wright, 
Indust.  Evol. 
of  U.S., 
Ch.  I,  II. 
Weeden, 
I,  120-129, 
252-260. 


Marvin, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 
341-363- 

Macdonald, 
133-136. 


82        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

New  England  began  to  build  seagoing  vessels  after 
1640  when,  the  tide  of  immigration  from  England  being 
checked,  few  British  ships  came  to  the  Northern  colonies, 
and  it  was  found  necessary  to  provide  for  the  needs  of 
trade.  At  Newburyport  and  Salem  on  the  Massachusetts 
coast,  at  New  Bedford,  Newport,  Warren,  and  Providence 
on  Buzzards  and  Narragansett  bays,  men  set  to  work  to  pro- 
vide for  the  expanding  commerce.  The  supply  of  fishing 
smacks,  whaling  vessels,  and  barques  for  the  coastwise 
trade  was  soon  sufl&cient  for  domestic  needs,  and  ships 
were  even  built  to  sell  abroad.  The  shipyards  at  New 
London  on  the  Thames  and  New  Haven  on  the  Connecticut 
were  equally  busy.  Poughkeepsie  and  Albany  on  the 
Hudson  furnished  vessels  for  the  trade  of  New  York.  At 
Wilmington  and  Philadelphia  on  the  Delaware  and  in  the 
harbors  of  the  Chesapeake,  boats  were  building  apace. 
On  the  eve  of  the  Revolution  the  annual  output  of  the 
Atlantic  coast  was  estimated  at  eighteen  thousand  tons. 
New  England  launched  seventy  sail.  New  York  twenty, 
Pennsylvania  twenty-five,  while  Virginia  and  Maryland 
combined  produced  but  thirty  vessels  and  South  (^aroHna 
but  ten.  In  spite  of  the  ample  supply  of  raw  materials 
the  industry  developed  slowly  in  the  South,  because?  capital 
and  industrial  enterprise  were  absorbed  in  agriculture, 
and  because  the  Southern  colonies  experienced  no  such 
decline  in  commercial  intercourse  with  Britain  as  forced 
the  men  of  the  North  to  provide  for  the  carrjdng  trade. 
Planters  sometimes  owned  their  own  vessels,  but  they  were 
usually  content  to  rely  on  the  ship  sent  out  l)y  their 
London  factor,  or  the  chance  visits  of  the  Yankee  trading 
sloops. 

The  Enumerated  Articles.  —  The  Cavalier  Parliament 
went  a  step  farther  than  the  Roundheads  in  securing  the 
dominance  of  British  interests  in  America.  A  clause  was 
added  (1663)  to  the  Navigation  Acts  requiring  that  certain 
enumerated  commodities  might  be  exported  from  the 
British  colonies  only  to  Great  Britain  and  her  dominions. 
Cotton,  indigo,  fustic,  and  other  dyewoods  used  in  the 


Development  under  British  Control 


83 


making  of  cloth  were  limited  to  the  home  market  in  the 
interests  of  manufactures.     Sugar,   tobacco,  and  ginger 
might  not  be  exported  direct  to  the  Continent,  but  must 
pass  through  a  British  port  that  the  government  might 
secure  the  customs  duty  and  the  merchants  a  commission 
on  the  transfer.     Thus  far  the  limitation  affected  the  West 
India  trade  chiefly,  since  none  of  these  commodities  except 
tobacco  was  produced  on  the  mainland.     But  other  prod- 
ucts were  added  to  the  list  from  time  to  time  as  British 
interests  seemed  to  demand:    molasses,  rice,  and  naval 
stores  in  1705;    copper,  beaver,  and  other  furs  in  1722;  ^2',ot' 
whale  fins,  hides,  iron,  lumber,  raw  silk,  and  pearlashes   New  York, 
in  1764.     Vessels  laden  with  enumerated  goods  must  give   "^'  ^^^~^'^^- 
bond  to  land  the  cargo  in  an  English  pprt  whence  it  might 
be  shipped  to  the  Continent. 

The  legislation  of  1663  restricted  also  the  import  trade. 
Not  only  were  the  staple  products  of  the  colonies  Hmited 
to  the  English  market,  but  goods  imported  from  Europe 
must  be  brought  via  England  that  duties  and  commissions 
might  be  collected  before  the  cargo  was  reshipped  to 
America.  As  a  concession  to  colonial  interests,  certain 
essential  commodities  were  exempted  from  this  require- 
ment :  salt  for  the  fisheries  of  New  England  might  be  im- 
ported direct  from  Spain  and  Portugal ;  wines  from  the 
Western  Islands  need  not  make  the  roundabout  journey 
to  an  English  port;  provisions,  horses,  servants,  and 
(later)  linen  might  be  shipped  from  Ireland  without  pay- 
ing toll  to  the  English  merchants. 

SmuggUng.  —  The  object  of  this  commercial  policy  was  Weeden. 
evident.     The  English  or  colonial  shipmaster  was  enabled  ^'  236-241 ; 
to  charge  high  freights  because  of  the  exclusive  privilege  "'  ^5^^^^- 
of  carrying  colonial  goods.    The  English  merchant  was 
insured  his  profits  on  colonial  trade  since  the  major  part 
of  exports  and  imports,  whether  from  Europe  or  the  Orient, 
must  pass  through  British  warehouses.     The  English  man- 
ufacturer was  enabled  to  get  his  raw  materials  cheap  and 
sell  his  finished  goods  dear  by  his  practical  monopoly  of 
the  colonial  market.     That  this  policy,  if  actually  put 


W: 


i  I 


I 


Weeden, 
n,  SS6-5S9- 


Docs,  Col. 
Hist,  of 
New  York, 
III,  44. 


Beer, 

Commercial 
Policy  of 
England, 
405-420. 

Macdonald, 
248-251. 


84        Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

into  execution,  must  work  injury  to  America  by  adding  to 
the  costs  of  transportation,  reducing  the  price  of  what 
the  colonists  had  to  sell,  and  advancing  the  price  of 
what  they  must  buy,  was  not  so  apparent  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  statesmen  who  devised  these  regulations. 
Colonial  industries  escaped  ruin  only  because  the  acts 
were  evaded  by  a  well-developed  system  of  smuggUng. 
Many  a  hogshead  of  tobacco  found  its  way  to  Holland  and 
France  without  paying  tribute  at  an  English  port.  Vessels 
laden  with  freight  from  the  Continent  lay  offshore  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Cape  Ann  for  weeks  together,  while 
dories  and  fishing  smacks  and  lumber  scows  plied  to  and 
from,  conveying  the  contraband  goods  to  Gloucester  and 
Salem.  In  1700  one  third  of  the  trade  at  Boston  and 
New  York  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  law.  Royal 
governors  and  revenue  oflScers  protested  in  vain,  for  smug- 
gling was  upheld  by  public  opinion,  and  some  of  the  most 
reputable  men  of  the  colonies  were  engaged  in  this  illicit 
business. 

The  Molasses  Act.  —  More  irritating  still  to  the  men 
of  New  England  was  the  legislation  that  concerned  the 
West  India  trade.  Merchants  had  found  greater  profit 
in  commerce  with  the  French  islands  and  Dutch  Guiana 
than  with  the  Barbadoes  and  Jamaica,  for  the  English 
islands  could  not  take  all  the  goods  offered  by  the  Yankee 
traders,  and  profits  had  declined.  Furthermore,  the  French 
sugar  and  molasses  could  be  had  at  lower  prices  than  the 
Jamaican.  The  French  planter  was  the  more  economical 
producer,  and  his  molasses  was  a  drug  in  the  home  market 
because  of  a  law  excluding  rum  from  France.  Hence  a 
brisk  trade  with  these  foreign  colonies  had  developed  to 
the  prejudice  of  Great  Britain's  sugar  islands.  I^rotests 
were  forwarded  to  the  home  government,  and  Parliament 
undertook  to  remedy  the  grievance  of  the  English  planters. 
A  bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons  (1731)  that  pro- 
hibited the  importation  of  sugar,  molasses,  and  rum  from 
any  foreign  colonies  into  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  or  any 
of  the  American  colonies;   also  the  exportation  of  horses 


Development  under  British  Control 


85 


and  lumber  to  foreign  plantations.  The  House  of  Lords 
rejected  the  bill,  arguing  that  the  Northern  colonies  could 
not  afford  to  buy  English  manufactures  if  this  market 
for  their  agricultural  products  was  cut  off.  The  result  of 
the  debate  was  a  compromise  measure  that  passed  both 
houses  in  1733.  "  For  the  better  securing  and  encouraging 
the  trade  of  His  Majesty's  sugar  colonies  in  America," 
practically  prohibitory  duties  were  imposed  on  foreign 
sugars.  Rum  and  spirits  were  to  pay  ninepence  per  gallon, 
molasses  and  sirup  sixpence,  sugar  five  shillings  per  hun- 
dredweight. Trade  with  the  French  West  Indies  would 
have  received  a  serious  check  but  for  the  general  practice 
of  smuggling. 

Credit  Money 

As  the  population  of  the  colonies  grew  and  business 
interests  multiplied,  the  demand  for  capital  with  which 
to  develop  the  latent  resources  of  the  country  and  for 
money  to  use  in  trade  steadily  increased.  Neither  wam- 
pum, bullets,  nor  staple  products  could  serve  the  money 
need  of  these  thriving  communities.  In  1690  Massachu- 
setts hit  upon  what  seemed  to  men  of  that  day  an  inex- 
haustible fountain  of  wealth  in  the  issue  of  credit  money. 
The  expedition  against  Louisburg  had  failed,  and  the 
soldiers,  who  were  to  have  been  rewarded  out  of  the  booty, 
returned  home  clamorous  for  pay.  The  treasury  was 
empty,  and  the  government  determined  to  meet  its  obli- 
gations in  promises.  Bills  of  credit  were  issued  to  the 
amount  of  £40,000,  but  the  notes  bore  no  interest  and  were 
made  payable  at  no  fixed  time.  There  was  some  skepticism 
as  to  their  ultimate  value,  and  they  were  received  in  ex- 
change at  but  twelve  and  fourteen  shillings  in  the  pound. 
The  government,  however,  succeeded  in  bringing  the  paper 
money  up  to  par  by  making  the  bills  receivable  for  taxes 
at  five  per  cent  advance  over  silver  coin,  and  the  public  was 
assured  that  the  notes  would  be  redeemed  in  silver  at  the 
end  of  twelve  months,  but  the  date  of  redemption  was 


Weeden, 
I,  379-387. 


Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Cvuxency, 
14-43- 

Bullock, 
Pt.  I,  Ch.  IV. 

Davis, 

Currency 
and  Banking 
in  Mass.  Bay, 
Pt.  I. 


Dewey, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
18-30. 

Callender, 
63-68. 


i: 


Weeden, 
11,473-491- 


86        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

extended  repeatedly  until  the  holders  of  the  notes  became 
discouraged.  Moreover,  the  bills  were  reissued  as  soon  as 
redeemed.  In  1 7 1 1  another  expedit  ion  to  Canada  rendered 
necessary  a  new  issue  of  bills  of  credit.  Massachusetts 
became  responsible  for  notes  to  the  amount  of  £40,000; 
while  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  joining  in  this  expedi- 
tion, met  their  proportion  of  the  expense  by  issues  of 
£10,000  and  £2000,  respectively.  By  1733  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  and  New  Hampshire  had  resort  to  this 
attractive  expedient  for  meeting  expenditures  to  which 
income  from  taxation  w^as  inadequate,  and  the  Southern 
colonies  soon  followed  the  same  pernicious  example. 

The  issue  of  paper  money  by  a  fully  established  govern- 
ment is  a  legitimate  device  for  meeting  a  financial  emer- 
gency when  resort  to  immediate  taxation  is  impracticable 
and  when  the  obligation  incurred  is  guaranteed  out  of  the 
revenue  of  subsequent  years ;  but  the  expedient  is  attended 
with  grave  dangers.  It  is  always  easier  to  contract  a  debt 
than  to  cancel  it.  The  needy  colonial  governments  de- 
ferred payment  from  time  to  time  until  public  confidence 
in  the  issue  was  weakened  and  the  bills  began  to  depre- 
ciate in  value.  The  loss  fell  on  bankers  who  held  the  notea 
and  on  merchants  who  were  obliged  to  receive  them  in 
exchange  for  goods.  Farmers,  on  the  other  hand,  who 
were  purchasing  implements  and  stock,  thought  the  country 
needed  more  of  this  inexpensive  money.  The  supply  of 
capital  was  far  short  of  the  demand,  and  borrowers  were 
obliged  to  pay  interest  as  high  as  eight  and  ten  p(;r  cent. 
It  was  urged  that  the  government  might  suitably  meet  the 
emergencies  of  individual  citizens  l)y  issuing  bills  of  credit 
for  the  purpose  of  making  loans  at  a  reasonable  rate  of 
interest  on  real  estate  security.  This  seemed  a  brilliant 
plan,  since  it  would  meet  three  crying  needs.  It  promised 
to  furnish  an  income  to  the  government,  capital  to  land- 
owners, and  currency  to  the  people.  The  argument  was 
amply  convincing  to  the  legislators  of  that  day,  and  in 
1 7 14  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  directed  the  issue 
of  £5o,cxx5  to  be  loaned  to  private  persons  at  five  per  cent 


Development  under  British  Control 


87 


The  loan  was  to  run  for  five  years,  and  the  borrower  under-  Davis, 
took  to  pay  back  one  fifth  each  year,  giving  a  mortgage  Currency 
on  his  land  as  security.    Subsequent  issues  brought  the  fn  Ml'^s^Bay. 
amount  of  these  Massachusetts  loans  up  to  £260,000.  Pt.  n. 
The  other  colonies  quickly  adopted  similar  measures  for 
meeting  the  general  demand  for  capital,  but  the  results 
were   disappointing.     The    farmers   were   usually   unable 
to  meet  their  payments,  the  governments  got  into  financial 
diflaculties  and  failed  to  redeem  their  obligations,  the  bills 
soon  fell  into  disrepute,  and  the  whole  country  from  New 
Hampshire  to  Georgia  was  flooded  with  a  depreciated 
paper  currency.     The  several  issues  of  twelve  distinct 
legislatures  were  mingled  in  hopeless  confusion. 

The  Board  of  Trade  had  advised  the  colonial  governors 
to  veto  the  bills  authorizing  the  issue  of  credit  money, 
but  their  opposition  was  vain.  The  irate  legislators  re- 
fused to  vote  supplies,  withheld  the  governors'  salaries, 
and  so  forced  their  approval  of  the  popular  measures. 
Effort  was  made  to  restore  full  purchasing  power  to  the 
discredited  currency  by  declaring  the  notes  legal  tender  in 
payment  of  private  debts  and  by  imposing  heavy  penal- 
ties on  creditors  refusing  to  receive  them.  Business  men 
of  the  colonies  and  merchants  in  London  made  vehement 
protest  against  these  force  laws. 

In  1750  the  paper  money  of  Massachusetts  exchanged 
for  sterling  at  one  eleventh  of  its  face  value,  that  of  New 
Hampshire  at  one  twenty-fourth,  that  of  Rhode  Island  at 
one  twenty-sixth.  The  depreciation  was  less  in  the  Middle 
and  Southern  colonies,  but  everywhere  the  injustice  done 
to  capitalists  and  to  widows  and  minors  dependent  on 
invested  funds  was  great  and  increasing.  The  year  fol- 
lowing Massachusetts  redeemed  her  outstanding  bills  in 
the  silver  accruing  from  the  Louisburg  indemnity,  and 
soon  after  declared  gold  and  silver  the  only  legal  tender  in 
payment  of  debt,  while  the  credit  money  of  the  neighboring 
colonies  was  rigorously  excluded.  The  commercial  ad- 
vantages of  specie  were  soon  evident  in  an  access  of  pros- 
perity to  the  "  silver  colony."    The  West  India  trade  had 


88 


Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Ripley, 
Financial 
Hist,  of 
Virginia, 
153-162. 


centered  in  Newport ;  much  of  it  was  now  transferred  to 
Boston  and  Salem.  Parliament  reenforced  the  action  of 
Massachusetts  by  prohibiting  (1751)  the  four  Northern 
colonies  from  issuing  more  bills  of  credit  except  in  the 
emergency  of  war.  In  1763  this  prohibition  was  ex- 
tended to  the  remaining  colonies,  and  the  legal  tender 
quality  of  the  bills  was  limited  to  the  period  origmally 
fixed  for  their  redemption.  This  restriction  was  dictated 
by  superior  finahcial  wisdom,  but  it  was  bitterly  rt^sented 
by  the  advocates  of  a  cheap  and  abundant  currency. 


Iron  Dinner  Pot 
Cast  at  Lynn  in  1645 


CHAPTER  IV 


INDUSTRIAL   ASPECTS   OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

Causes 

The  French  and  Indian  Wars  (i 754-1 763)  had  mo- 
mentous consequences  for  the  American  colonies.  In  the 
Peace  of  Paris,  the  claim  of  France  to  the  St.  Lawrence, 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  the  fertile  stretch  of  country  between 
the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Alleghanies  was  surrendered 
to  Great  Britain.  The  trading  posts,  forts,  and  mission 
stations  were  abandoned  by  soldier,  priest,  and  voyageur, 
and  the  long  race  rivalry  terminated  in  the  triumph  of 
the  English.  The  Indian  tribes  were  less  to  be  dreaded 
now  that  the  representatives  of  a  hostile  power  no  Jonger 
incited  their  plundering  raids,  while  the  placing  of  British 
garrisons  at  strategic  points.  Forts  Duquesne,  Niagara,  and 
Detroit,  assured  the  safety  of  the  pioneer  settlements. 
At  the  same  time  Spain  yielded  Florida  in  exchange  for 
Havana,  taken  from  her  during  the  war,  and  the  southern 
frontier  of  the  British  provinces  was  extended  to  the  Gulf. 
The  Cherokees  soon  became  convinced  that  the  advance 
of  the  white  man  could  no  longer  be  resisted  and  withdrew 
beyond  the  mountains. 

The  seven  years'  contest  had  fully  demonstrated  the 
capacity  of  the  colonies  for  self-defense.  For  the  later 
campaigns  they  had  furnished  twenty-five  thousand 
soldiers,  clothed,  armed,  and  paid  out  of  appropriations 
made  by  the  colonial  assemblies.  More  than  four  hundred 
privateers  were  fitted  out  in  American  ports,  and  the 
damage  they  inflicted  on  French  shipping  contributed 
in  no  slight  degree  to  the  final  victory.  These  services 
had  been  gratefully  acknowledged  by  the  British  Parlia- 

89 


Lecky, 
Hist,  of 
England, 
III,  Ch.  XII 

Beer, 
British 
Colonial 
Policy, 
Ch.  IX. 

Hulbert, 
Braddock's 
Road, 
Ch.  I. 


Maclay, 
Hist.  Am. 
Privateers, 
39-42. 


Lecky, 

III,  Ch.  XII. 


I 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
I,  Ch.  VI. 


Ramsay, 
Am.  Rev., 
I,  Ch.  II,  III 


90        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

ment,   and  large  appropriations   were   voted  in   partial 
compensation. 

The  Imperial  Regime.  —  Great  Britain  emerged  from 
the  Seven  Years'  War  no  longer  an  island  kingdom,  but  an 
empire.  Her  colonial  possessions,  not  only  in  America, 
but  in  India,  had  been  enormously  increased,  and  her 
statesmen  were  forced  to  devise  a  system  of  government 
commensurate  with  these  new  responsibilities.  A  har- 
monious administration  of  colonial  interests  and  an  ade- 
quate scheme  of  colonial  defense  were  of  prime  importance. 
Both  the  lords  of  trade  and  the  king's  cabinet  were  con- 
vinced that  the  regime  of  ""  salutary  neglect  "  must  come 
to  an  end,  and  that  vigorous  measures  must  be  taken  to 
bring  the  American  colonies  under  effective  imi)erial  su- 
pervision before  they  had  quite  outgrown  such  control. 
The  commercial  regulations,  so  long  flouted  and  evaded, 
must  be  enforced,  a  standing  army  of  not  less  than  ten 
thousand  British  regulars  should  be  stationed  in  America, 
and  its  maintenance  provided,  in  part  at  least,  by  taxes 
imposed  upon  the  colonies.  George  Grenville,  the  prime 
minister,  and  Charles  Townshend,  president  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  were  primarily  responsible  for  the  new  policy. 
They  were,  however,  resolutely  supported  by  George  III, 
a  king  who  took  his  functions  seriously  and  to  whom  the 
royal  prerogatives  were  sacred  and  above  dispute. 

The  authority  of  Parliament  in  the  affairs  of  the  colonies 
had  never  been  defined.  The  Americans  were  exercising 
a  measure  of  self-government  far  beyond  that  enjoyed 
by  eighteenth  century  Englishmen.  The  several  colonial 
assemblies  were  accustomed  to  legislate  concerning  all 
matters  of  internal  interest,  and  their  acts  had  been  called 
in  question  only  when  they  affected  British  trade.  Internal 
taxes  and  customs  duties  for  the  purpose  of  raising  revenue 
had  hitherto  been  laid  by  the  same  authority  and  applied 
to  the  expenses  of  local  government.  Parliament  had 
enacted  commercial  regulations  with  a  view  to  securing 
monopoly  of  trade  with  the  colonies,  and  duties  had  been 
imposed  at  colonial  ports  in  order  to  prevent  the  impor- 


Indus trial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


91 


W°  GxMBwich"?? 


DISTRIBUTION  OF 

ENGLISH  POPULATION 

1774. 


8CALE  or  MILES 


0     60   100         200  300         MO 


»OTE:-Tht  State$  hate  betn  httere<t  a»d  the 

boundaries  dt^ned  to  date  showing  inore 

Clfarty  the  Inention  of  the  varioiiK  points. 


MRMAY  *  CO.,  H.V. 


INTENTIONAL  SECOND  EXPOSURE 


Lecky, 


90        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

ment,   and  large   appropriations   were   voted  in   partial 
compensation. 

The  Imperial  Regime.  —  Great  Britain  emerged  from 
the  Seven  Years'  War  no  longer  an  island  kingdom,  but  an 
empire.  Her  colonial  possessions,  not  only  in  America, 
but  in  India,  had  been  enormously  increased,  and  her 
statesmen  were  forced  to  devise  a  system  of  government 
commensurate  with  these  new  responsibilities.  A  har- 
monious administration  of  colonial  interests  and  an  ade- 
quate scheme  of  colonial  defense  were  of  prime  importance. 
Both  the  lords  of  trade  and  the  king's  cabinet  were  con- 
ill,  Ch.  XII.  vinced  that  the  regime  of  "  salutary  neglect  "  must  come 
to  an  end,  and  that  vigorous  measures  must  be  taken  to 
bring  the  American  colonies  under  effective  imperial  su- 
pervision before  they  had  quite  outgrown  such  control. 
The  commercial  regulations,  so  long  flouted  and  evaded, 
must  be  enforced,  a  standing  army  of  not  less  than  ten 
thousand  British  regulars  should  be  stationed  in  America, 
and  its  maintenance  provided,  in  part  at  least,  by  taxes 
imposed  upon  the  colonies.  George  Grenville,  the  prime 
minister,  and  Charles  Townshend,  president  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  were  primarily  responsible  for  the  new  i)olicy. 
They  were,  however,  resolutely  supported  by  George  III, 
a  king  who  took  his  functions  seri<.)usly  and  to  whom  the 
royal  prerogatives  were  sacred  and  above  dispute. 

The  authority  of  Parliament  in  the  affairs  of  the  colonies 
had  never  been  defined.  The  Americans  were  exercising 
a  measure  of  self-government  far  beyond  that  enjoyed 
by  eighteenth  century  Englishmen.  The  several  colonial 
assemblies  were  accustomed  to  legislate  concerning  all 
matters  of  internal  interest,  and  their  acts  had  been  called 
in  question  only  when  they  affected  British  trade.  Internal 
taxes  and  customs  duties  for  the  purpose  of  raising  revenue 
had  hitherto  been  laid  by  the  same  authority  and  applied 
to  the  expenses  of  local  government.  Parliament  had 
enacted  commercial  regulations  with  a  view  to  securing 
monopoly  of  trade  with  the  colonies,  and  duties  had  been 
imposed  at  colonial  ports  in  order  to  prevent  the  impor- 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S 
I,  Ch.  VI. 


Ramsay, 
Am.  Rev., 
I,  Ch.  II,  III 


\ 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  91 


I>ISTRTBUTIOX  OF 

ENGLISH  POPULATION 

1774. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


0   60  100      sa       jaa       mo 


eiWMAY  4  eg.,  H.V. 


VOTE:-Tht  States  havt  been  httereil  u«d  the 

houndariet  defined  to  date  khuwiiin  'itore 

cffnrlyjhfjncntion  of  the  rarioif  poiiitn. 


Callender, 
122-142. 

Macdonald, 
272-281. 

Beer, 

British 

Colonial 

Policy, 

Ch.  XIII, 

XIV. 


Callender, 
Si-63. 


92        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

tation  of  goods  that  came  into  competition  with  British 
interests.  Internal  taxation,  however,  and  revenue  duties 
had  never  been  attempted.  Grenville's  great  predecessors, 
Walpole  and  Pitt,  had  rejected  proi)osals  of  this  nature  as 
impolitic.  But  the  war  had  entailed  heavy  burdens; 
Great  Britain  was  staggering  under  a  debt  of  £140,000,000, 
half  of  which  represented  miUtary  expenses  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  the  English  tax])ayer  was  beginning  to 
protest.  The  colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  had  been  in- 
creasing in  wealth  and  population  with  extraordinary 
rapidity,  and  the  costs  of  local  government  were  light. 
They  were  deemed  abundantly  able  to  meet  some  por- 
tion of  the  expenses  henceforth  to  be  incurred  in  their 
behalf. 

The  Sugar  Act.  —  The  change  of  poHcy  was  indicated  in 
a  series  of  parhamentary  enactments  proposing  to  raise  a 
revenue  from  the  "  American  Plantations."  The  duties 
laid  in  1733  on  sugar  and  molasses  brought  into  the  colonies 
from  the  French  and  Spanish  West  Indies,  were  meant  to 
be  prohibitory,  and  no  revenue  was  anticipated  or  secured. 
In  1764  these  duties  were  cut  in  half  in  the  expectation  that 
the  distillers  could  pay  the  rates  without  unduly  raising  the 
price  of  their  rum.  The  preamble  to  the  Sugar  Act  cites 
the  necessity  of  providing  for  the  defense  of  the  c<jlonies 
as  the  reason  for  reducing  the  imposts. 

The  Sugar  Act  imposed  duties  on  other  imports  — 
coffee,  wines,  silks,  cambrics,  and  French  lawns.  The  rates 
were  not  so  high  as  seriously  to  diminish  importation,  and, 
being  levied  on  articles  of  luxurious  consumption,  they  were 
paid  without  much  protest.  Not  so  the  duty  on  foreign 
molasses,  for  this  jeopardized  an  im[)ortant  business  inter- 
est. The  duty  of  threepence  a  gallon,  once  enforced,  ad- 
vanced the  price  of  molasses  twenty  per  cent  and  absorbed 
all  the  profit  of  the  rum  distillers,  since  the  price  of  rum 
could  not  be  increased  in  proportion.  Orders  for  molasses 
were  withheld,  and  the  merchants,  having  small  prospects 
of  return  cargoes  from  the  West  Indies,  detained  their 
vessels  in  port  or  sent  them  elsewhere.     The  lumber  and 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


93 


Mass., 
19. 


■•'fj 


flour,  salt  meat  and  fish,  with  which  the  trader  would 

have  been  loaded,  went  begging  for  purchasers.     Prices 

feU  and  the  farmers  lost  their  best  market.     Workmen 

were  thrown  out  of  employment,  not  only  field  hands,  but 

sailors  and  lumbermen,  distillers  and  gristmill  employees 

Governor  Bernard  of  Massachusetts,  by  no  means  an  ad-  Speeches  of 

vocate  of  colonial  privilege,  was  moved  to  serious  protest   ^°^-  ^^ 

against  the  disastrous  effect  this  ruthless  tax  would  have  '^'^'^^ 

upon  the  fisheries  of  New  England.     ''  Our  pickled  fish 

wholly,  and  a  great  part  of  the  codfish,  are  fit  only  for  the 

West  India  market.     The  British  Islands  cannot  take  off 

one  third  of  the  quantity  caught ;  the  other  two  thirds 

must  be  lost  or  sent  to  the  foreign  plantations,  where 

molasses  is  given  in  exchange.     The  duty  on  this  article 

will  greatly  diminish  its  importation  hither,  and  being  the 

only  article  allowed  to  be  given  in  exchange  for  our  fish 

a  less  quantity  of  the  latter  wiU  of  course  be  exported] 

the  obvious  effect  of  which  must  be  the  diminution  of  the 

fish  trade,  not  only  to  the  West  Indies,  but  to  Europe,  — 

fish  suitable  for  both  these  markets  being  the  produce  of 

the  same  voyage.     If,  therefore,  one  of  these  markets  be 

shut,  the  other  cannot  be  supplied.     The  loss  of  one  is  the 

loss  of  both, as  the  fishery  must  fail  with  the  loss  of  either." 

Bernard  believed  that  a  tax  of  one  penny  a  gallon  could 

be  collected  without  jeopardizing  the  business  interests 

mvolved. 

The  decline  in  the  West  India  trade  checked  the  inflow 
of  Spanish  coin  and  thus  deprived  merchants  of  the  silver 
needed  to  meet  their  foreign  obligations.  The  require- 
ment that  the  obnoxious  tax  should  be  paid  in  specie  was 
peculiarly  irritating  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  sole  source 
of  supply  was  stopped  by  means  of  these  very  duties.  The 
prohibition  of  further  issues  of  credit  money,  a  measure 
wise  m  itself,  but  ill-timed,  aggravated  the  diflSculties  of 
the  situation.  The  supply  of  paper  money  began  to  run 
short  just  when  the  dwindling  importations  of  silver  ren- 
dered recourse  to  specie  difficult.  Domestic  trade  was 
seriously  embarrassed,  and  business  men  the  length  and 


Weeden, 
II,  671. 


McCrady, 
n,  615. 


94        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

breadth  of  the  country  were  driven  to  the  conclusion  that 
their  industrial  interests  could  not  be  regulated  to  advan- 
tage by  a  legislature  three  thousand  miles  distant,  most 
of  whose  members  knew  nothing  whatever  of  American 
conditions. 

If  anything  more  were  needed  to  provoke  hostility  to 
the  Sugar  Act,  it  was  supplied  in  the  provisions  made  for 
enforcement.  The  laxness  of  the  years  in  which  an  ex- 
penditure of  £8000  in  collection  had  produced  a  revenue 
of  £2000  was  now  replaced  by  great  vigilance.  Customs 
officers  were  required  to  reside  at  their  posts  and  to  render 
systematic  accounts  as  guarantee  of  efficient  service. 
Writs  of  assistance  authorizing  collectors  to  search  private 
houses  suspected  of  harboring  smuggled  goods  had  been 
granted  in  176 1  to  check  illicit  trade  with  Canada,  and  they 
were  now  used  with  effect  for  inspection  of  the  West  India 
trade.  The  war  vessels  stationed  along  the  coast  were 
ordered  to  assist  in  the  capture  of  smugglers,  and  their 
officers  were  sworn  in  for  the  revenue  service.  The  courts 
of  admiralty  were  empowered  to  try  cases  of  evasion  with- 
out recourse  to  jury  trial.  Serious  friction  was  the  in- 
evitable result  of  these  drastic  measures. 

Several  enactments  calculated  to  lighten  some  of  the 
Hmitations  on  colonial  trade  were  adopted  in  1765  and 
1767.  The  suspension  of  the  import  duties  on  grains, 
salt  meat,  fish,  and  dairy  products  sent  from  the  American 
colonies  was  probably  suggested  by  scarcity  in  l^:ngland, 
but  the  concession  was  none  the  less  advantageous  to  the 
farming  communities.  If  continued,  it  might  go  far 
toward  offsetting  the  loss  of  the  West  India  market.  The 
removal  of  the  duty  on  whale  fins  was  intended  to  placate 
New  England.  An  olive  branch  was  offered  to  the  Southern 
colonies  in  the  shape  of  bounties  on  hemp  and  flax  and  raw 
silk.  American  hides,  too,  were  exempted  from  duty  in 
British  ports.  Rice,  hitherto  an  enumerated  commodity, 
was  not  exempted,  but  it  was  allowed  (1730)  to  go  to  the 
Spanish  colonies  as  well  as  to  European  ports  south  of 
Finisterre. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


95 


The  Stamp  Act.  -  The  amount  of  revenue  derived  from 

n.  tTc        'n  ""^'l'^^  ^"^^^  ^^^  P^^-^  ^appoint- 
ing, but  Grenville  was  hopeful  that  £100,000  a  year  might 

be  secured  by  a  stamp  tax.     Such  a  measure  was  already 

in  successful  operation  in  Great  Britain,  and  it  would 

he  believed,  work  well  in  the  colonies.     In  March,  1765' 

the  Stamp  Act  passed  both  houses  of  t>arliament  with 

hUle  comment,  for  few  of  the  members  anticipated  any 

difficulty  m  Its  enforcement.     Stamps   varying  in   cos^ 

rr..f  ^"i7  ''  ^^°  "'^^  ^^^^^^^  -  '^-^^^^^^  deed 
such   as   books,   pamphlets,   almanacs,   newspapers,   and 
playmg  cards.     Stamp  distributors  were  appointed,  ;hose 
duty  It  was  not  only  to  provide  the  stamps  but  to  .spy  upon 
delinquents.     They   were   ordered   to   frequent    the   Z 

rSort  '.n  ^"T  '"^  '^  ''''''  '^'  P^^^^^^^'  ^h-P^  and 

report  all  cases  of  noncompliance.     Neglect  to  affix  the 

proper  stamp  was  punished  by  fines  varying  from  £c  to 
i'So,  and  persons  selling  or  hawking  almanacs  or  news- 
papers not  duly  stamped  were  to  forfeit  forty  shillings 
I  he  penalty  for  counterfeiting  was  death.  ' 

Despite  these  stringent  provisions  the  Stamp  Act  pro- 
duced  no  revenue.     Men  refused  to  buy  the  stamps,  pre- 
ferring to  leave  contracts  unrecorded.     Patriotic  lawyers 
declined  to  accept  documents   bearing   the   official   seal 
Newspapers  suspended  issue  or  appeared  with  a  death's- 
head  printed  m  place  of  the  required  stamp.     Boxes  con- 
taimng  the  hated  emblems  of  imperial  authority  were 
burned  or  thrown  into  the  sea.    In  South  Carolina  the  McCrady 
courts  were  closed  because  the  stamps  could  not  be  used    n.  cf "' 
In  Boston  the  stamp  distributor  was  forced  by  threats  ^^^^• 
of  violence  to  resign  his  duties,  the  stamp  office  was  de- 
stroyed, and  the  house  of  the  lieutenant  governor  was 
burned  to  the  ground.     The  citizens  of  New  York  were 
equally  energetic  in  their  rejection  of  the  hated  tax     In 
every  town  along  the  coast  the  efforts  of  the  officers  to 
enforce   he  use  of  the  stamps  were  successfully  resisted. 
The  struggle  that  followed  cannot  be  accounted  for  on 


Resolutions 
of  the 
Stamp  Act 
Congress, 
Macdonald, 
313-315. 


Bishop, 
I.  365-383- 


Callender, 
143-159- 


Bagnall, 

I,  Ch.  II,  III. 


96        Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

economic  grounds  alone.  The  tax  imposed  a  serious  bur- 
den on  certain  business  interests,  but  the  political  principle 
involved  was  far  more  important  than  any  money  loss  and 
affected  all  classes.  The  colonists  believed  that  they  were 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  Englishmen  resident,  in  the 
British  Isles,  and  that  they  should  not  be  taxed  by  an  as- 
sembly in  which  their  interests  were  not  represented.  In 
this  view  they  were  supported  by  liberal-minded  statesmen 
such  as  Pitt  and  Burke.  George  III  and  his  ministers,  on 
the  other  hand,  had  scant  sympathy  with  popular  rights, 
whether  in  England  or  America,  and  held  to  their  own 
theory  of  colonial  dependence.  A  series  of  resolutions, 
drawn  up  (1765)  by  a  congress  of  delegates  from  nine  of 
the  thirteen  colonies,  was  submitted  to  the  king  and  to 
both  houses  of  Parliament,  but  no  answer  was  vouchsafed. 

Nonintercourse.  —  Argument  having  failed  of  etTect,  the 
colonists  sought  to  reach  the  ear  of  the  mother  country 
through  her  trade  interests.  A  form  of  protest  very  Hke 
the  modern  boycott  was  determined  on.  The  merchants 
of  Boston  signed  an  agreement  to  import  no  goods  from 
Great  Britain  until  the  obnoxious  legislation  should  be 
repealed,  and  the  merchants  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
adopted  similar  resolutions.  Retail  dealers  undertook 
in  turn  to  sell  none  of  the  boycotted  imports,  and  their 
customers,  catching  at  this  chance  of  expressing  their  in- 
dignation, agreed  to  buy  articles  of  domestic  manufacture 
only.  The  Daughters  of  Liberty,  an  enthusiastic  organiza- 
tion of  ladies,  resolved  to  purchase  no  more  British  goods 
and  to  wear  only  homespun,  and  these  loyal  Americans 
conducted  spinm'ng  matches  where  prizes  were  offered  for 
the  best  day's  work.  The  senior  class  in  the  "  university 
at  Cambridge  "  agreed  (1768)  to  take  their  degrees  ''dressed 
altogether  in  the  manufactures  of  this  country."  The 
students  of  Rhode  Island  College  imitated  this  patriotic 
example  in  the  year  following. 

Meantime  a  systematic  effort  was  being  made  to  develop 
domestic  manufactures  as  a  substitute  for  imported  goods. 
As  early  as  1751  prominent  citizens  of  Boston  had  sub- 


!  ! 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  97 

scribed  capital  to  a  society  for  ''  Encouraging  Industry 
and  Employing  the  Poor,"  and  the  General  Court  voted 
£1500  to  aid  in  establishing  a  "Manufactory  House." 
Similar  societies  were  organized  in  New  York  in  1764,  and 
in  Philadelphia  in  1775.  In  these  and  many  smaller  towns 
Hnen  and  woolen  cloth  of  a  quality  approaching  the  Enghsh 
goods  was  made  up  in  considerable  quantities.  The  supply 
of  flax  and  wool  being  quite  inadequate  to  the  new  demand, 
the  production  of  these  raw  materials  was  urged  upon  the 
farmers.  The  killing  of  lambs  was  discouraged,  and  butch- 
ers exposing  this  meat  for  sale  wpre  boycotted  by  the 
patriotic. 

The  royal  governors  and  other  British  officers  under- 
rated this  movement,  representing  in  their  reports  to  the 
Board  of  Trade  that  the  actual  achievements  of  the  newly 
established  manufactures  were  slight;    but  the  ministry 
soon  became  convinced  that  the  Americans  were  in  earnest. 
The  demand  for  English  goods  fell  off  alarmingly.     Mer- 
chants declined  to  take  the  risk  of  shipping  the  tabooed 
commodities,  and  vessels  sailed  with  half  a  cargo  or  stayed 
in  port,  thus  involving  their  owners  in  financial  difficulties. 
Manufacturers  reahzed  the  loss  of  the  American  market 
in  diminished  sales.     Unable  to  dispose  of  the  goods  in 
stock,  they  closed  their  mills,  and  thousands  of  workmen 
were  thrown  out  of  employment.    Petitions  for  the  repeal 
of  the  legislation  that  had  occasioned  this  business  paralysis 
were  forwarded  to  London,  not  only  from  colonial  legis- 
latures but  from  English  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
Factors  found  the  collection  of  debts  from  America  in- 
creasingly difficult  and  added  their  plea  to  the  general 
protest.     The  Board  of  Trade  was  beset  by  the  angry 
representatives  of  great  business  interests,  and  petitions 
poured  in  at  the  rate  of  a  dozen  a  day. 

The  Repeal.  —  The  Stamp  Act  had  been  adopted  almost  Lecky, 
without  discussion,  but  the  proposition  to  rescind  brought  ^"'  ^^  Xll 
on  one  of  the  longest  and  fiercest  debates  that  had  ever 
taken  place  in  the  British  Parliament.    Pitt,  the  con- 
sistent opponent  of  the  imperial  policy,  proposed  that  the 


Franklin's 

Works, 

III,  407-450. 


I 

II: 


98         Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Stamp  Act  should  be  repealed  absolutely,  totally,  and  im- 
mediately, and  that  the  reason  for  repeal  should  be  assigned  ; 
namely,  that  it  was  erroneous  in  principle ;  but  even  this 
warm  friend  of  the  colonies  urged  the  assertion  c»f  Parlia- 
ment's prerogative.  *'Let  the  sovereign  authority  of 
this  country  over  the  colonies  be  asserted  in  as  strong 
terms  as  can  be  devised,  and  be  made  to  extend  to  every 
point  of  legislation  whatsoever ;  that  we  may  bind  their 
trade,  confine  their  manufactures,  and  exercise  every  power 
whatsoever  —  except  that  of  taking  their  money  out  of 
their  pockets  without  their  consent." 

FrankUn,  then  in  London  as  agent  of  Pennsylvania, 
was  examined  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
as  to  the  temper  of  the  Americans.  He  stated  that  they 
would  never  submit  to  the  new  tax  unless  compelled  by 
force  of  arms.  ''  The  Stamp  Act  says,  we  shall  have  no 
commerce,  make  no  exchange  of  property  with  each  other, 
neither  purchase,  nor  grant,  nor  recover  debts ;  we  shall 
neither  marry,  nor  make  our  wills,  unless  we  pay  such  and 
such  sums;  and  thus  it  is  intended  to  extort  our  money 
from  us,  or  ruin  us  by  the  consequences  of  refusing  to  pay 
it."  To  submit,  he  argued,  would  involve  the  colonies 
in  future  requisitions,  even  more  onerous  and  arbitrary. 
Early  in  1766  the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed  because,  as  the 
preamble  recites,  "the  continuance  of  said  act  would  be 
attended  with  many  inconveniences  and  might  be  pro- 
ductive of  consequences  greatly  detrimental  to  the  com- 
mercial interests  of  these  kingdoms."  But  the  king's 
party  had  no  intention  of  abandoning  the  principle  at  stake. 

Attempt  to  vindicate  Imperial  Authority.  —  Just  before 
the  repeal.  Parliament  passed  the  Declaratory  Act,  stating 
in  explicit  terms  that  the  "  Colonies  and  Plantations  in 
America  have  been,  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be  subor- 
dinate unto  and  dependent  upon  the  imperial  crown  and 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain."  Esteeming  the  Declaratory 
Act  an  empty  threat,  the  colonists  rejoiced  in  the  with- 
drawal of  the  stamp  tax  as  a  victory  for  constitutional 
rights.    The   South   Carolina  Assembly  voted   to   erect 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  ' 


99 


a  statue  of  William  Pitt  in  grateful  recognition  of  his 
services  in  securing  the  repeal,  the  Quakers  of  Philadel- 
phia celebrated  the  king's  birthday  in  new  suits  made  of 
English  cloth  and  gave  their  homespun  to  the  poor,  while 
in  New  York  and  Boston  the  merchants  renewed  their 
orders  for  English  goods.  The  ultimate  victory  was, 
however,  by  no  means  assured.  The  king  and  his  cabinet 
were  more  than  ever  bent  upon  vindicating  the  right  of 
Parliament  to  derive  a  revenue  from  the  colonies.  Late  in 
1766  the  Sugar  Act  was  revised,  the  duties  being  lowered ; 
that  on  molasses  from  threepence  to  one  penny  a  gallon, 
in  the  expectation  that  the  returns  would  increase.  The 
expenses  of  the  British  garrisons  were  provided  for  in  the 
Mutiny  Act,  which  quartered  the  troops  in  specified  dis- 
tricts, and  required  the  inhabitants  to  furnish  them  fuel, 
light,  and  lodgings.  The  irritating  obligation  was  deeply 
resented,  especially  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  Charleston, 
where  the  refusal  of  the  people  to  contribute  was  indorsed 
by  the  assemblies. 

This  new  affront  to  imperial  authority  determined  the 
government  on  drastic  measures.  Townshend,  now  the 
leading  spirit  in  the  cabinet,  forced  through  Parliament 
three  fateful  enactments.  The  New  York  Assembly  was 
suspended  from  legislative  functions  until  the  Mutiny 
Act  should  be  respected  in  that  province.  Commissioners 
of  customs  were  sent  to  America  with  powers  adequate 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  trade  regulations.  A  new  reve- 
nue tariff  imposed  duties  on  glass,  painters'  colors,  paper, 
tea,  wine,  oil,  and  fruit  imported  into  the  colonies  and  the 
revenue  anticipated  from  these  imposts  duties  (£40,000 
a  year)  was  to  be  appUed  to  the  payment  of  the  salaries 
of  the  king's  representatives  in  America,  the  governors 
and  judges,  that  they  might  henceforth  be  independent 
of  the  assemblies.  The  duties  of  the  Townshend  Act  were 
not  high,  but  they  were  levied  on  articles  of  general  con- 
sumption and  added  to  the  cost  of  living  for  all  classes 
and  all  sections.  The  proposal  to  render  governors  and  ^^^^''^^y* 
judges  independent  of  colonial  legislatures  was  even  more  xioai. 


Bassett, 
The  Regu- 
lators of 
North 
Carolina. 


Bishop, 
I,  372. 


McCrady, 
II,  Ch. 
XXXIV, 
XXXV. 


100      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

unpopular  than  provision  for  a  standing  army.  The  men 
appointed  to  colonial  office  were  often  mere  favorites  and 
younger  sons  of  the  lords  of  trade,  and  they  neglectc^d  their 
duties.  In  the  "  back  country  "  of  the  Carolinas  lawless- 
ness  and  crime  were  actually  encouraged  by  the  ineffi* 
ciency  of  the  justices. 

Renewal  of  Nonintercourse.  —  Resistance  to  this  new 
manifestation  of  the  imperial  policy  was  even  more  wide- 
spread and  systematic  than  that  called  out  by  the  Stamp) 
Act.  The  nonimportation  movement  of  1766  had  been 
the  work  of  individuals  or  of  voluntary  associations.  The 
movement  of  1767  and  1768  was  sanctioned  by  political 
bodies  and  was  therefore  official.  The  men  of  Boston  in 
town  meeting  assembled  resolved  that  "  the  excessive  use 
of  foreign  superfluities  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  present 
distressed  state  of  this  town,  as  it  is  thereby  drained  of  its 
money ;  which  misfortune  is  likely  to  be  increased  by  means 
of  the  late  additional  burdens  and  impositions  on  the  trade 
of  the  Province,  which  threaten  the  country  with  ])overty 
and  ruin."  Citizens  were  urged  to  abstain  from  the  pur- 
chase  of  the  taxed  commodities.  The  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  indorsed  Boston's  action  by  the  resolution 
that  "  this  House  will  by  all  prudent  means,  endeavor 
to  discountenance  the  use  of  foreign  superfluities  and  to 
encourage  the  manufactures  of  this  province."  Similar 
resolutions  were  adopted  by  the  legislatures  of  Connecticut, 
Virginia,  New  York,  Maryland,  and  North  Carolina.  Tht^ 
artisans  of  Charleston  under  the  lead  of  Christopher 
Gadsden  assembled  under  the  Liberty  Oak  and  adopted 
nonimportation  resolutions  which  were  enforced  by  boycott 
of  merchants  importing  English  goods.  More  backward 
colonies,  such  as  New  Hampshire  and  Georgia,  and  more 
conservative,  such  as  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania, 
entered  into  the  movement  later,  and  under  com])ulsion. 
Committees  of  correspondence  and  supervision  kept  watch 
upon  imports  and  threatened  refractory  parties,  whether 
colonies  or  individuals,  with  nonintercourse. 

The  agreement  to  abstain  from  the  purchase  of  EngUsh 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         loi 

goods  was  effectively  maintained  in  the  colonies  where 
manufactures  were  sufficiently  developed  to  supply  im- 
mediate needs.  The  value  of  English  goods  imported  into 
New  England  was  £419,797  in  1768  and  but  £207,993 
in  1769.  New  York  imported  £182,930  worth  of  goods 
in  1768  and  but  £74,918  in  the  following  year.  The 
patriots  of  Pennsylvania  succeeded  in  reducing  her  im- 
ports from  £432,107  in  1768  to  £199,916  in  1769.  But 
in  the  Southern  colonies  the  most  strenuous  measures 


1 

r- 

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r-          r- 
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— „— 

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£1,000,000 


IMPORTS  FROM  GREAT  BRITAIN'TO  THE  COLOtllES 


———EXPORTS  FROM  THE  COLONIES  TO  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Trade  between  the  American  Colonies  and  Great  Britain 

FROM  1764  TO  1776 

could  not  prevent  considerable  clandestine  trade.  Plant- 
ers' supplies  were  expressly  excepted  from  the  South 
Carolina  boycott.  Importation  of  EngUsh  goods  actually 
advanced  between  1768  and  1769;  in  Maryland  and 
Virginia  from  £475,984  to  £488,362,  in  the  CaroUnas 
from  £289,868  to  £306,600,  in  Georgia  from  £56,562  to 
£58,340.  The  total  falling  off  of  £521,129  was,  however, 
sufficient  to  produce  a  serious  impression  on  EngUsh  in- 
dustries. A  corresponding  shrinkage  of  £191,248  in  ex- 
ports to  the  British  Isles  advanced  the  price  of  American 
goods  to  the  English  consumer  and  manufacturer.  The 
experience  of  1765  was  renewed.    The  seaports  and  the 


102      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

factory  towns  sent  remonstrances  to  the  government  and 
besieged  the  House  of  Commons  with  petitions,  and  the 
ministry  was  finally  obliged  to  yield.  The  Townshend 
Act  was  repealed  (1770),  but  the  tax  of  threepence  a  i)ound 
on  tea  was  retained  as  evidence  of  imperial  authority. 

The  Tea  Tax.  —  Placated  by  the  seeming  victory,  the 
agitators  relaxed  the  boycott  on  EngHsh  goods.  The 
merchants  gladly  renewed  their  orders,  and  consumers 
rejoiced  in  the  prospect  of  finer  cloth  than  domestic  looms 
could  produce ;  but  the  embargo  on  English  tea  was  con- 
tinued. It  had  been  the  poUcy  of  the  government  to  assure 
a  monopoly  in  this  popular  beverage  to  the  East  India 
Company.  All  teas  destined  for  the  colonies  must  pass 
through  an  English  port  and  pay  duty  there  en  route  to 
America.  The  colonists  had  been  accustomed  to  evade 
this  irksome  regulation,  and  fully  nine  tenths  of  the  million 
and  a  half  pounds  annually  consumed  in  America  was 
brought  directly  from  Holland  or  the  Orient.  The  re- 
strictive  regulation  was  now  enforced,  but  to  render  this 
monopoly  more  palatable  the  tax  of  a  shilling  a  pound, 
hitherto  collected  at  the  British  customhouses,  was  re- 
mitted  in  case  the  tea  was  consigned  to  an  American  im- 
porter. The  East  India  Company's  tea  might  thus  pay 
the  colonial  duty  and  yet  retail  at  a  lower  price  than  that 
charged  for  the  smuggled  article.  The  revenue  antici- 
pated (£16,000  per  annum)  would  be  but  one  fourth  of 
the  sum  remitted  in  drawbacks,  but  the  British  govern- 
ment was  determined  to  assert  its  authority  despite  finan- 
cial loss.  The  colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  were  ecjually 
determined  to  vindicate  their  right  to  self-taxation.  Three 
shiploads  of  tea  arriving  in  Boston  harbor  in  December, 
1773,  were  boarded  by  a  party  of  prominent  citizens,  and 
more  than  three  hundred  chests  were  thrown  into  the  sea. 
At  New  York  and  Philadelphia  the  ships  were  not  allowed 
to  land  their  cargoes  and  were  forced  to  carry  the  tea  back 
to  London.  At  Charleston  the  tea  was  taken  from  the  con- 
signees and  stored  in  cellars,  where  it  molded  and  became 
unsalable.   Later  importations  were  thrown  into  the  harbor* 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         103 

It  was  evident  that  the  Americans  objected  to  the  tax 
on  tea  as  strenuously  as  to  the  stamp  tax,  and  that  it  could 
be  collected  only  by  force.  Pitt  and  Burke  urged  con- 
ciHatory  measures,  but  the  king's  ministers  believed  that 
there  was  no  choice  between  the  enforcement  of  the  law 
and  complete  surrender,  and  they  determined  on  enforce- 
ment. Boston,  where  defiance  had  been  most  outspoken, 
was  selected  as  an  example.  The  port  was  declared  closed 
(March,  1774)  "  because  the  commerce  of  his  majesty's 
subjects  cannot  be  safely  carried  on  there  nor  the  customs 
payable  to  his  majesty  duly  collected."  Landing  and 
shipping  of  merchandise  was  forbidden  after  June  first, 
and  men-of-war  were  detailed  to  maintain  a  blockade. 
The  customhouse  was  removed  to  Salem.  Since  the  busi- 
ness prosperity  of  Boston  depended  almost  wholly  on 
commerce,  the  blow  threatened  her  very  existence. 

The  Boycott  Complete.  —  The  cause  of  the  beleaguered 
city  was  immediately  espoused  all  along  the  coast.  Salem 
offered  to  Boston  merchants  the  free  use  of  her  wharves 
and  warehouses.  Subscriptions  for  the  relief  of  the  un- 
employed of  the  stricken  city  were  taken  up  in  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  while  the  planters  of  Virginia,  Maryland, 
and  South  Carolina  sent  contributions  of  corn  and  rice. 
A  solemn  league  and  covenant  was  signed  by  patriotic 
citizens  who  bound  themselves  to  abstain  from  all  inter- 
course with  Great  Britain  until  the  coercive  legislation 
should  be  repealed.  The  Virginia  Assembly  (August, 
1774)  resolved  that  no  English  goods  should  be  imported 
into  that  province  after  cargoes  already  ordered  had  been 
received.  Vigilance  committees  were  appointed  to  en- 
force this  agreement,  and  offenders  were  to  be  blacklisted 
as  the  enemies  of  liberty.  This  third  suspension  of  com- 
merce with  Great  Britain  was  generally  opposed  by  the 
merchants,  who  had  learned  by  experience  how  heavy 
were  the  losses  involved.  In  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
where  the  loyalist  party  was  strong,  opposition  to  the 
costly  expedient  was  determined,  and  since  these  ports 
held  a  pivotal  position,  their  defection  would  destroy  the 


McCrady, 
II,  764-770. 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 

I,  399, 
Scx>-5io. 


104      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

efifect  of  the  boycott.  The  embargo  policy  was  hotly  de- 
bated in  the  Continental  Congress  convened  at  Philadel- 
phia in  September,  but  in  the  end,  a  nonintercourse  and 
nonconsumption  resolution  was  adopted  to  take  effect 
December  i,  1774.  The  prohibition  covered  all  Enghsh 
goods,  East  India  Company  teas,  wines  that  had  paid 
duty  in  British  ports,  sugar  and  molasses  from  the  British 
West  Indies,  and  slaves  brought  to  the  colonies  in  British 
vessels.  In  case  the  protested  grievances  had  not  been 
redressed  in  the  interval,  exportation  of  colonial  products 
to  Great  Britain  was  to  cease  after  September  10,  1775. 
(Rice  was  exempted  from  this  embargo  at  the  request  of 
the  South  Carolina  planters.)  It  was  confidently  expected 
that  the  inconvenience  and  distress  occasioned  in  England 
by  the  loss  of  the  colonial  market  would  bring  the  govern- 
ment to  terms.  The  boycott  was  more  vigorously  en- 
forced than  in  1765  or  in  1768,  and  English  imports  de- 
clined from  £2,590,437  in  1774  to  £201,162  in  1775;  but 
without  effect.  The  king  and  his  ministers  were  con- 
vinced that  to  yield  now  would  be  to  forfeit  for  all  time 
the  claim  to  imperial  authority. 

Nonexportation  was  attempted  in  due  turn,  but  this 
phase  of  the  nonintercourse  poUcy  was  even  more  difficult 
to  enforce.  In  the  determination  to  find  a  market  for  their 
produce,  planters  evaded  the  vigilance  committees  quite 
as  skillfully  as  they  had  evaded  the  king's  officers. 
Virginia  sent  £73,000  worth  of  tobacco  to  England  in 
177s,  and  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  £25,000  worth  of 
rice  and  indigo.  This  was,  however,  but  one  tenth  of 
the  exports  of  the  previous  year.  The  shrinkage  in  total 
exports  between  1774  and  1776  amounted  to  £i,26(),882. 
The  sudden  collapse  of  the  American  trade,  which  had 
hitherto  meant  one  third  her  maritime  commerce,  produced 
serious  industrial  disturbance  in  England,  but  the  effect  for 
the  colonies  was  even  more  disastrous.  Merchants  were 
ruined,  farm  produce  glutted  the  domestic  markets,  and 
workmen  suffered,  for  many  industries  were  at  a  standstill. 
On  the  very  eve  of  the  Revolution  the  accustomed  supply 
of  arms  and  ammunition  was  suddenly  cut  off. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  105 

Far  from  abandoning  the  principle  expressed  in  the 
Declaratory  Act,  Parliament  proclaimed  Massachusetts 
in  a  state  of  rebellion  and  ordered  additional  troops  to 
America.  The  fishermen  of  New  England  were  denied 
access  to  the  Grand  Banks,  and  at  the  same  time  (March, 
1775)  trade  was  interdicted  between  the  rebellious  colonies 
and  all  other  ports  than  those  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland, 
and  the  British  West  Indies.  Nine  months  later  all  inter- 
course with  the  colonies  was  prohibited.  American  ves- 
sels when  captured  on  the  high  seas  were  declared  forfeit, 
their  cargoes  were  liable  to  seizure,  their  seamen  might  be 
impressed  into  the  royal  navy.  In  the  following  March 
the  Continental  Congress  authorized  American  vessels  to 
fit  out  as  privateers  and  so  to  carry  on  an  armed  trade  in 
defiance  of  the  embargo.  "  The  die  is  now  cast,"  wrote 
the  king.  "  The  colonies  must  either  submit  or  triumph." 
The  colonists,  on  their  part,  were  being  driven  to  the  con- 
viction that  nothing  short  of  complete  separation  would 
insure  their  interests  against  prejudicial  legislation. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  1776.  —  The  consistent 
endeavor  of  the  British  government  to  render  the  colonies 
a  source  of  profit  to  the  mother  country  had  imposed  in- 
tolerable shackles  on  industrial  development.  Colonial 
trade  had  been  monopolized  by  British  ships,  colonial 
products  had  been  limited  to  English  ports,  colonial  manu- 
factures had  been  restricted  or  suppressed.  The  fishing 
villages  of  New  England  were  impoverished  by  the  Sugar 
Act,  and  the  rum  distilleries  stood  idle.  At  the  silent 
wharves  of  Boston  the  merchantmen  lay  accumulating 
barnacles  in  place  of  profits.  In  the  forests  of  Maine  and 
New  Hampshire  hundreds  of  mast  trees,  marked  with  the 
broad  arrow  that  reserved  them  for  the  royal  navy,  rotted 
wastefuUy  away.  Again  and  again  conflicts  broke  out 
between  the  surveyor-general  of  the  king's  woods  and  the 
lumbermen  who  held  by  "  swamp  law."  The  farmers 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  protested  vigorously 
against  the  imposition  of  quitrents  and  manorial  obliga- 
tions.   In  the  "back  country"  of  the  CaroUnas  the  regu- 


Restraining 

Act, 

Macdonald, 

368-374, 

391-396. 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S, 
I,  495-497- 


Address  to 
the  People 
of  Great 
Britain, 
Pitkin, 
Hist,  of 
U.S.,  I, 
473-482. 


Ramsay, 
History  of 
South 
Carolina, 
I,  Ch.  VI. 


Callender, 
168-179. 


106      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

lators,  weary  of  misrule,  had  taken  matters  into  their 
own  hands  and  declared  the  county  of  Mecklenburg  in- 
dependent of  Great  Britain.  The  grievances  of  the 
colonists  were  not  theoretical,  but  practical  and  urgent. 
One  fourth  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence were  merchants  or  shipmasters.  John  Hancock, 
the  first  delegate  to  affix  his  signature  to  that  momentous 
document,  was  known  as  the  prince  of  smugglers,  and  was 
even  then  contesting  suits  in  the  admiralty  courts  that 
involved  £100,000  in  penalites. 

Industrial  Consequences 

In  the  seven  years'  conflict  that  followed  on  the  asser- 
tion of  independence,  the  chances  of  success  seemed  about 
equally  divided.  England  was  handicapped  by  distance 
from  the  scene  of  war.  Soldiers,  arms,  and  equipment 
must  be  transported  across  three  thousand  miles  of  stormy 
sea.  The  mother  country  was,  moreover,  heavily  burdened 
by  an  unprecedented  national  debt.  Her  resources  in 
the  way  of  taxes  and  customs  revenue  were,,  however, 
assured,  for  she  had  a  standing  army  in  thorough  training 
and  the  largest  and  best  equipped  navy  afloat.  The 
seceding  colonies  had  no  treasury  and  no  navy.  Their 
fighting  force  was  made  up  of  militia  companies  fur- 
nished in  uncertain  levies  by  thirteen  distinct  statti  gov- 
ernments. The  troops  knew  Httle  of  army  discipline  and 
were  seldom  adequately  provisioned ;  but  the  Americans 
were  good  marksmen,  and  they  excelled  the  British  in 
physical  endurance  and  in  the  self-reliance  developed  by 
the  vicissitudes  of  pioneer  life.  They  had  the  great 
advantage  of  fighting  over  well-known  country  and  under 
familiar  conditions,  an  advantage  fully  offset,  to  be  sure, 
by  the  material  losses  necessarily  sustained  in  the  country 
that  must  submit  to  the  ravages  of  war. 

The  most  serious  weakness  of  the  seceding  colonies  was 
their  lack  of  union.  The  only  central  government  was 
the  Continental  Congress,  —  a  deliberative  body  with  no 


lli. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         107 

constitutional  authority  to  lay  taxes  or  to  levy  troops. 
Congress  might  requisition  men  and  supplies,  but  had  not 
power  to  enforce  compUance.  Each  state  sent  its  militia 
into  the  field  when  its  own  boundaries  were  invaded,  but 
was  loath  to  furnish  troops  for  a  distant  campaign.  The 
taxes  levied  by  the  state  legislatures  were  expended  by 
the  same  authority,  and  they  were  slow  to  make  over  any 
of  their  scanty  revenues  to  the  general  treasury.  The 
ultimate  success  of  the  colonists  was  due  to  political 
divisions  in  England  and  the  French  aUiance,  rather  than 
to  the  strength  of  their  own  defense. 

National  Bankruptcy.  —  The  long  controversy  had  bred 
in  the  Americans  a  hearty  abhorrence  of  taxation.  The 
people  who  had  repudiated  the  authority  of  Parliament 
would  not  readily  respond  to  the  levies  of  the  state  legis- 
latures. Both  state  and  continental  governments  were 
obliged,  therefore,  to  resort  to  the  issue  of  bills  of  credit 
in  order  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  initial  campaigns. 
This  easy  method  of  meeting  financial  obligations  had  been 
discredited  in  the  eyes  of  business  men  by  previous  ex- 
perience of  such  issues  and  by  the  commercial  advantages 
Massachusetts  had  derived  from  the  resumption  of  specie 
currency.  The  mass  of  the  people,  however,  were  con- 
vinced that  there  need  be  no  difficulty  in  giving  this  fiat 
money  full  purchasing  power.  It  was  cheap  and  con- 
venient and  would  remain  in  circulation,  whereas  the  un- 
patriotic British  coins  persisted  in  abandoning  the  country. 
Six  of  the  colonies  had  already  issued  paper  money  before 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  When  Congress  assumed 
responsibility  for  the  general  defense,  the  New  York 
Assembly  forwarded  recommendations  for  the  issue  of 
bills  of  credit,  "  since  it  is  clearly  impossible  to  raise  any 
sum  adequate  by  tax."  "  Do  you  think,"  argued  one  of 
the  delegates  in  the  Continental  Congress,  "  that  I  will 
consent  to  load  my  constituents  with  taxes  when  we  can 
send  to  our  printer  and  get  a  wagon-load  of  money,  one 
quire  of  which  will  pay  for  the  whole?" 

In  June,  1775,  one  week  after  the  appointment  of  the 


Ramsay, 
Am.  Rev., 
II,  App.  IV. 


BoUes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
I.  Bk.  I, 
Ch.  m,  IX, 
X. 


Callender, 
180-195. 


Webster, 
Political 
Essays,  8. 


I 


Dewey, 
Ch.  II.     • 

White, 
Money  and 
Banking, 
Bk.  II, 
Ch.  II. 

Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
43-54- 
Ramsay, 
Am.  Rev. 

App.  n. 

Sumner, 
Financier 
and  Finances 
of  the 
Am.  Rev., 
I,  Ch.  IV. 


1 08      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

commander-in-chief  of  the  Cont  nental  army,  Congress 
authorize(i  the  issue  of  $2,000,000  in  bills  of  credit.  These 
notes  entitled  the  bearer  to  receive  a  given  number  of 
Spanish  milled  dollars  at  a  time  and  place  not  specified. 
The  responsibility  for  redeeming  the  notes  was  distributed 
among  the  several  colonies  in  proportion  to  population, 
and  each  colony  was  to  meet  its  respective  obligation  in 
four  annual  payments  dating  from  November  30,  1779. 
Another  $1,000,000  was  issued  in  July  and  $3,000,000  more 
before  the  end  of  the  year.  Early  in  1776,  when  news 
came  that  the  English  government  was  to  send  over  foreign 
mercenaries,  still  greater  appropriations  were  called  for, 
and  Congress  had  ordered  the  issue  of  $14,000,000  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed.  The  bills, 
imperfectly  guaranteed  and  bearing  no  interest,  were  less 
acceptable  to  government  creditors  than  specie,  and 
Congress,  well  aware  that  further  issues  would  weaken 
public  confidence  in  the  redeema!)Llity  of  the  notes,  cast 
about  for  other  means  of  meeting  military  expenses. 

In  October,  1776,  a  loan  was  authorized.  Bonds  were 
issued  to  the  amount  of  $5,000,000,  bearing  interest  at  the 
rate  of  four  per  cent.  They  did  not  find  a  ready  sale.  The 
rate  of  interest  was  too  low  and  the  credit  of  the  govern- 
ment too  uncertain  to  render  this  an  attractive  invest- 
ment. Later  bond  issues  bore  six  per  cent  interest,  but 
capitalists  were  loath  to  risk  their  money  on  so  dubious 
a  venture.  Benjamin  FrankUn  succeeded  in  borrowing 
$6,000,000  from  France,  and  John  Jay  undertook  to  secure 
aid  from  the  Spanish  government ;  but  less  than  $35,000,- 
000  was  derived  from  loans  at  home  and  abroad.  In 
November,  1776,  Congress  had  resort  to  the  then  entirely 
honorable  expedient  of  raising  money  by  a  government 
lottery.  One  hundred  thousand  tickets  were  printed  and 
placed  on  sale,  and  the  sanguine  authors  of  this  scheme 
hoped  to  secure  $1,500,000  in  specie;  but  the  prizes, 
treasury  certificates  payable  in  five  years  with  interest  at 
four  per  cent,  were  not  suflftciently  alluring  to  delude  many 
into  taking  lots.     In  December  of  this  same  year  Con- 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         109 

gress  requested  the  state  legislatures,  with  whom  the 
taxmg  power  then  rested,  to  raise  the  much  needed  revenue 
from  their  several  constituencies ;  but  the  state  authorities 
had  their  own  expenses  to  meet,  and  had  reason  to  dread 
the  storm  that  might  follow  an  attempt  to  levy  taxes.  No 
more  than  $6,000,000  was  ever  derived  from  the  state 
requisitions.  Congress  then  recommended  the  state 
governments  to  confiscate  the  property  of  British  sym- 
pathizers to  the  needs  of  the  Revolution  and  to  authorize 
the  payment  of  debts  due  British  merchants  into  their 
own  treasuries  and  in  paper  money.  Some  $16,000,000 
was  secured  in  this  unworthy  fashion. 

In  October,  1778,  when  $63,000,000  in  bills  of  credit 
had  been  issued  and  one  dollar  in  specie  was  worth  five  in 
paper.  Congress,  finding  this  a  costly  method  of  provision- 
ing the  army,  urged  the  several  states  to  furnish  suppHes 
in  kind.  Virginia  was  requested  to  contribute  twenty 
thousand  barrels  of  Indian  corn,  and  the  Northern  states 
sent  flour,  beef,  rum,  and  hay.  The  cost  of  transporting 
these  stores  was  often  great,  since  the  army  might  be  dis- 
tant from  the  source  of  supply,  and  the  device  was  soon 
abandoned.  The  state  governments  did,  however,  au- 
thorize the  commissioners  to  seize  food,  fuel,  and  cloth- 
ing wherever  needed,  giving  certificates  of  indebtedness 
in  exchange.  This  most  irritating  and  unequal  form  of 
requisition  was  only  justified  by  the  extremities  to  which 
the  army  had  been  reduced  in  the  previous  winter  at 
Valley  Forge.  It  was  a  hand-to-mouth  policy,  and  placed 
the  American  authorities  in  unfortunate  comparison  with 
the  British  commissariat,  where  supplies  were  purchased 
in  good  gold  and  silver  coin. 

All  other  expedients  proving  inadequate.  Congress  was 
finally  forced  to  fall  back  on  the  emission  of  bills  of  credit. 
In  the  first  eight  months  of  1779,  $100,000,000  was  issued, 
and  the  purchasing  power  of  the  paper  dollar  decUned  from 
one  sixth  to  one  twentieth  that  of  specie  toward  the  close 
of  that  year.  In  September  Congress,  aghast  at  the 
prospect  of  rapid  depreciation,  resolved  to  limit  the  total 


Sabine, 
Loyalists  of 
Am.  Rev., 
I,  Ch.  XI, 
XII. 

Van  Tyne, 
Loyalists  in 
Am.  Rev., 
Ch.  XII, 
XIII. 


I 


PubUc 
Papers  of 
John  Jay, 
I,  21&-2.36. 


Schuckers, 
Revolution- 
ary Finances, 
125. 


Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
55-60. 


1 10      IndustHal  History  of  the  United  States 

issue  to  $200,000,000,  and  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
the  American  people  stating  the  guarantee  for  the  ultimate 
redemption  of  the  notes.  John  Jay  argued  that  the  fulfill- 
ment of  this  obligation  was  pledged  on  the  faith  of  the  con- 
federated states,  each  of  which  had  assumed  its  due  portion 
of  the  debt.  The  resources  of  the  country  were  limitless, 
population  was  increasing  with  extraordinary  rapidity, 
the  tax-paying  capacity  of  the  states  would  be  amply 
sufficient  to  meet  the  payments  before  they  fell  due.  Even 
though  the  war  debt  should  amount  to  $300,000,000,  the 
"  quota  falling  upon  the  individual  citizen  would  be  slight. 
It  was  inconceivable  that  an  obligation  assumed  under 
circumstances  so  solemn  and  compelling  should  ever  be 
repudiated.  "  A  bankrupt,  faithless  republic  would  be  a 
novelty  in  the  political  world.  .  .  .  The  pride  of  Amer- 
ica revolts  from  the  idea;  her  citizens  know  for  what 
purposes  these  emissions  were  made,  and  have  repeatedly 
plighted  their  faith  for  the  redemption  of  them;  they  are 
to  be  found  in  every  man's  possession,  and  every  man  is 
interested  in  their  being  redeemed."  Eloquent  and  forceful 
as  was  the  appeal,  it  could  not  stay  the  decline  in  value 
of  the  currency.  Before  the  end  of  the  year  a  paper  dollar 
was  worth  but  two  or  three  cents  in  specie,  and  Congress 
had  been  obliged  to  issue  notes  up  to  the  $200,000,000 
limit.    No  further  issues  were  authorized. 

The  forty  several  emissions  of  Continental  currency 
amounted  to  $241,552,780,  but  since  notes  were  occasionally 
cancelled,  probably  no  more  than  $200,000,000  were  in  circu- 
lation at  any  one  time.  In  this  respect,  therefore.  Congress 
kept  to  its  resolution,  but  not  so  with  the  pledge  to  redeem. 
The  notes  were  never  taken  up  at  their  face  value.  In 
November,  1780,  when  the  bills  were  exchanging  for  specie 
at  one  hundred  to  one.  Congress  recommended  the  states 
to  recall  them  in  exchange  for  bills  of  new  tenor  at  the  rate 
of  forty  to  one,  and  some  $119,400,000  were  thus  canceled. 
In  1790,  $6,000,000  more  were  taken  at  the  United  States 
Treasury  in  payment  on  government  bonds  at  the  rate 
of  one  himdred  to  one.    The  remaining  $75,000,000  were 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution 


III 


lost  or  destroyed  as  worthless  paper.  The  depreciation  of 
the  Continental  currency  was  accelerated  by  state  issues 
to  the  amount  of  $209,524,000.  These  bHls  circulated 
quite  as  freely  as  the  congressional  notes,  and  brought  the 
volume  of  currency  up  to  $450,000,000,  a  grand  total 
greatly  in  excess  of  the  business  needs  of  the  country. 
The  decline  in  purchasing  power  had  been  due  almost  as 
much  to  excessive  issue  as  to  the  lack  of  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  redemption  of  the  notes. 

The  effect  of  meeting  the  military  emergency  by  credit 
money  was  equivalent  to  a  heavy  and  unequally  distrib- 
uted tax,  the  greater  part  of  which  was  borne  by  the  im- 
mediate creditors  of  the  government.  The  obhgations 
represented  in  bills  of  credit,  loans,  and  certificates  of 
indebtedness  amounted  to  $650,000,000,  fully  one  third 
of  which  was  repudiated.  If  specie  had  been  available, 
the  cost  of  the  war  might  have  been  met  by  an  expendi- 
ture of  $135,693,000. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  the  central  govern- 
ment, as  then  constituted,  could  have  met  the  financial 
emergency  in  any  other  way.  The  debates  of  the  period 
show  a  full  recognition  of  the  dangers  of  the  road  on  which 
the  government  had  entered.  The  limit  of  $200,000,000 
was  originally  set  for  the  emission  of  Continental  currency 
as  the  point  that  might  not  be  passed  in  safety.  Congress 
repeatedly  protested  against  further  state  issues  and  be- 
sought the  state  assemblies  to  withdraw  their  bills  from 
circulation,  but  in  vain.  The  state  authorities  were  in 
equally  serious  straits  and  quite  as  unable  to  get  back  to 
a  specie  basis.  Desperate  efforts  were  made  to  sustain 
the  value  of  the  paper  money.  In  vain  Congress  solemnly 
resolved  that  "  any  person  who  shall  hereafter  be  so  lost 
to  all  virtue  and  regard  for  his  country  as  to  refuse  the  bills 
or  obstruct  and  discourage  their  currency  or  circulation, 
shall  be  deemed,  published,  and  treated  as  an  enemy  of 
the  country,  and  precluded  from  all  trade  and  intercourse 
with  its  inhabitants  " ;  the  most  loyal  adherent  of  the  Revo- 
lution would  not  receive  the  bills  at  par.    In  vain  the 


Pitkin, 
Stat.  View, 
26,  27. 

BoUes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S. 
II,  Bk.  I, 
Ch.  III. 


McLaughlin, 
Confedera- 
tion and 
Constitution, 
Ch.  IV. 


Bolles, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
I.  Bk.  I. 
Ch.  XII. 


112      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

states  declared  the  bills  legal  tender  in  payment  of  all 
debts,  pubUc  and  private,  and  imposed  heavy  penalties 
on  persons  refusing  to  receive  them ;  men  preferred  for^ 
feitmg  their  property  outright  to  receiving  worthless  bills 
m  exchange.  In  vain  did  price  conventions  undertake 
to  check  the  rise  of  prices  by  fixing  on  a  maximum  limit  for 
wages  of  labor,  boat  and  carriage  fares,  inn  charges,  prices 
of  manufactures,  farm  produce,  and  imports;  the  scale 
had  to  be  advanced  from  year  to  vear  to  keep  pare  with 
the  decHne  m  the  value  of  money,  until  the  rates  of  1780 


1775 


1776 


1777 


1778 


1779 


1780 


$1.00 


$150,000,000 

$125,000,000 

$100,000,000 

$75,000,000 

$50,000,000 

$25,000,000 

^  0 

Continental  Currency,  Emissions  and  Depreciation 

,  were  twenty  times  the  prices  prevailing  in  1774.  Even  so 
It  was  impossible  to  enforce  the  legal  tariff.  Farmers 
would  not  bring  their  produce  to  market  nor  would  mer- 
chants import  goods  to  be  sold  for  depreciated  paper. 
Finally  men  abandoned  the  use  of  money  altogether  and 
had  resort  to  barter.  When,  in  the  last  years  of  the  war 
the  specie  brought  in  by  the  English  army  and  the  French 
fleet  came  into  general  circulation,  the  Continental  cur- 
rency disappeared  and  prices  dropped  to  the  former  level, 
m  accordance  with  an  economic  law  stronger  than  any 
Bolles,  Statutory  enactment. 

Hroi'us..  J^^  depreciation  of  the  currency  had  a  demoralizing 
I.Bk.i,  effect  on  business  relations.  Debtors  were  enabled  to 
Ch.xi,xvi.  meet  their  obHgations  in  legal  tender  worth  but  a  fraction 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         113 


of  the  value  received.  Trustees  defrauded  their  charges 
by  paying  over  their  remittances  in  paper.  Speculators 
trafficked  in  money  of  varying  values,  clearing  profits 
off  the  fluctuations  from  rime  to  time  and  from  place  to 
place,  and  thus  made  fortunes  out  of  the  national  disgrace. 
The  extraordinary  advance  in  prices  was  regarded  as  suffi- 
cient jusrificarion  for  the  intimidation  of  merchants  and 
the  forcible  seizure  of  goods.  "  Speculation,  Peculation, 
Engrossing,  forestaUing,"  wrote  Washington,  ''  afford  too 
many  melancholy  proofs  of  the  decay  of  public  virtue.  .  .  . 
Nothing,  I  am  convinced,  but  the  depreciation  of  our 
currency  .  .  .  aided  by  stock-jobbing  and  party  dis- 
sensions, has  fed  the  hopes  of  the  enemy." 

Commercial  Gains  and  Losses.  —  With  the  achieve- 
ment of  independence,  American  trade  was  set  free  from 
the  restraints  imposed  by  England's  colonial  policy. 
Immense  benefits  were  anticipated  from  this  emancipation. 
"  Our  comnierce,"  wrote  John  Jay,  "  was  then  confined  to 
Great  Britain.  We  were  obliged  to  carry  our  commodities 
to  her  market  and,  consequently,  sell  them  at  her  price ; 
we  were  compelled  to  purchase  foreign  commodities  at 
her  stores  and  on  her  terms  and  were  forbidden  to  estabUsh 
any  manufactures  incompatible  with  her  view  of  gain. 
In  future  the  whole  worid  will  be  open  to  us,  and  we  shall 
be  at  Uberty  to  purchase  from  those  who  will  seU  on  the 
best  terms  and  to  sell  to  those  who  will  give  us  the  best 
prices."  These  hopes  were  not  immediately  realized. 
The  nonintercourse  policy  had  involved  merchants  and 
shipowners  in  financial  embarrassment.  Parliament's 
prohibition  of  American  trade,  first  with  foreign  countries 
and  then  with  the  British  dominions,  had  been  rigorously 
enforced  by  an  effective  navy,  and  commercial  ventures 
were  abandoned  because  the  risks  were  greater  than  the 
chances  of  profit.  Many  merchants  took  out  letters  of 
marque  and  reprisal  and  armed  their  vessels.  Three  or 
four  hundred  privateers  rendered  valiant  service  through- 
out the  war,  defending  our  coasts  and  attacking  merchant- 
men and  men-of-war  flying  the  Union  Jack  on  the  high  seas. 


Writings 
of  George 
Washington, 
VII,  291. 

McLaughlin, 
Ch.  IX. 


Writings 
of  George 
Washington, 
VII,  388. 


PubUc 
Papers  of 
John  Jay, 
I,  230. 


McLaughlin, 
Ch.  V. 


Maclay, 
Pt.  I,  Ch. 
IV-XVI. 


I 


Callender, 
196—220. 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  186-192. 

Marvin, 

ch.  m. 


Sheffield, 
American 
Commerce, 
1-6,  134-218. 


Callender, 
208^220. 


114      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Some  six  hundred  prizes  fell  to  their  share,  and  the  prize 
money  went  far  toward  offsetting  the  losses  of  the  merchant 
marine. 

The  major  part  of  our  transatlantic  trade  had  been  with 
Great  Britain  and  her  dependencies.     Independence  placed 
us  outside  of  the  Navigation  Act  and  deprived  us  of  the 
commercial  advantages  hitherto  accorded  American  vessels 
in  British  ports,  and  this  commerce  received  a  serious 
check.     The  younger  Pitt,  the  constant  friend  of  America, 
proposed   (1783)   that  the  commercial  relations  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  be  estabhshed  on  the 
principle  of  reciprocal  benefit.     American  ships  were    to 
be  admitted  on  the  same  terms  as  those  of  any  independent 
nation,  and  the  goods  brought  in  should  be  subject  only 
to  such  duties  as  were  imposed  on  goods  from  the  British 
colonies.     This  wise  and  liberal  policy  was  set  aside  be- 
cause protested  by  the  English  shipping  interest.     It  was 
urged   that   American   vessels,   built   more   cheaply   and 
manned  more  easily  than  were  their  British  competitors, 
would  soon  secure  the  whole  Atlantic  trade,  and  that  the 
United  States  was  Ukely  to  become  a  more  dangerous 
rival  than  Holland  had  been.     British  subjects  were  for- 
bidden to  purchase  American-built  ships.     Not  only  were 
American  vessels  classed  as  foreign  under  the  Navigation 
Act,  but  the  seceded  territory  was  treated  as  thirteen 
distinct  states,  and  an  American  vessel  was  excluded  unless 
her  cargo  consisted  of  the  products  of  the  particular  state 
where  her  owners  resided.     In  1783  an  Order  in  Council 
denied  American  vessels  access  to  the  ports  of  the  British 
West  Indies  under  any  conditions,  and  forbade  the  im- 
portation of  fish,  beef,  and  pork  from  the  United  States, 
even  when  carried  in  English  ships.     More  than  one  third 
the  vessels  clearing  from  Boston  and  New  York  in  the 
decade  before  the  Revolution  had  sailed  for  these  ports, 
and  under  the  new  regulations  American  merchants  for- 
feited a  trade  worth  $3,500,000  a  year.     To  the  planters 
of  Jamaica  and  the  Bahamas  this  arbitrary  prohibition  • 
was  nothing  less  than  disaster.     Fifteen  thousand  slaves 
died  of  starvation  in  the  next  four  years. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         1 1 5 

Other  business  interests  experienced  the  ill  effects  of 
separation.  Exports,  such  as  indigo^  naval  stores,  and 
hemp,  dwindled  because  of  the  withdrawal  of  the  bounties 
formerly  paid  by  the  British  government.  In  place  of 
this  stimulus,  duties  levied  in  the  English  ports  actually 
checked  the  exportation  of  these  articles.  The  ship- 
builders, too,  lost  their  best  market,  and  the  whalers  were 
no  longer  on  an  equal  footing  with  their  British  competitors. 
Moreover,  the  prohibitory  duties  of  the  Corn  Law  were 
imposed  upon  our  agricultural  products.  Our  trade  with 
the  French  and  Spanish  West  Indies,  with  Europe  and 
the  Orient,  free  so  far  as  ships  were  concerned,  was  ham- 
pered by  prohibitions  and  restrictions  on  the  goods  that 
might  be  imported. 

The  Congress  of  the  Confederation  attempted  to  nego- 
tiate a  commercial  treaty  with  Great  Britain  that  should 
secure  more  advantageous  terms,  but  these  overtures  were 
rejected.  English  merchants  were  well  content  with  the 
trade  regulations,  enacted  by  their  own  government,  and 
English  statesmen  openly  denied  the  ability  of  Congress 
to  enforce  any  commercial  agreement  upon  thirteen  un- 
ruly states.  In  other  directions  Congress  was  no  more 
successful  in  protecting  the  commercial  interests  of  Ameri- 
can citizens.  Spain  claimed  proprietorship  in  both  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  and,  by  consequence,  the  monopoly 
of  trade  along  that  important  waterway.  The  attempt 
to  negotiate  a  treaty  giving  American  vessels  equal  rights 
failed.  The  settlers  west  of  the  Alleghanies  bitterly  pro- 
tested the  surrender  of  their  only  means  of  reaching  a 
market,  and  plotted  secession.  Negotiations  with  other 
European  courts  came  to  little  result.  Said  Washington, 
"  We  are  one  nation  to-day,  thirteen  to-morrow,  who  will 
treat  with  us  on  these  terms?  " 

Conflicting  commercial  legislation  was  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  diverse  interests  of  the  states.  Massachusetts 
and  New  Jersey  originally  declared  for  free  trade  in  the 
interests  of  commerce.  Virginia  continued  to  levy  an  ex- 
port duty  on  tobacco  and  an  import  duty  on  Uquors  as  the 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,Ch.XVIL 


Callender, 
221-231. 


Hill, 

First  Stages 
in  U.  S.  Tariff 
Policy, 
490-527. 


Pitkin, 
Stat.  View 
of  U.S., 
Ch.  n. 


Stanwood, 
American 
Tariff  Con- 
troversies, 
I,  Ch.  U. 


II 


Ii6      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

easiest  means  of  securing  a  revenue.  Pennsylvania,  Rhode 
Island,  and  New  York,  and  eventually  Massachusetts, 
laid  heavy  taxes  on  foreign  luxuries,  such  as  wines,  tea, 
coffee,  sugar,  and  coaches,  in  the  interest  of  revenue,  and 
imposed  duties  on  certain  manufactures  in  order  to  j^rotect 
domestic  industries  against  English  competition.  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  discriminated  against  foreign 
(especially  British)  traders  by  doubling  the  duties  on  goods 
imported  in  British  vessels.  Even  interstate  commerce, 
e.g.  in  tobacco,  was  subjected  to  imposts.  The  Atlantic 
coast  was  thus  divided  into  thirteen  distinct  customs  dis- 
tricts, each  pursuing  an  independent  policy,  and  the  state 
authorities  not  infrequently  came  into  conflict  as  to  the 
limits  of  their  respective  jurisdictions.  Virginia  and 
Maryland  were  at  loggerheads  over  the  navigation  of  the 
Potomac,  while  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  disj^uted 
control  of  the  Delaware  River.  Soon  it  became  e'vident 
that  Congress  could  not  bring  Spain  and  Great  Britain 
to  terms  nor  negotiate  other  commercial  treaties  without 
power  to  make  and  enforce  uniform  regulations. 

Development  of  Manufactures.  -  -  Independence  put  an 
end  to  the  restrictions  imposed  by  Parliament  on  American 
manufactures.  Woolen  cloth  and  beaver  hats  could  now 
be  sent  to  any  market  at  home  or  abroad,  and  sHtting  mills, 
foundries,  and  steel  furnaces  might  be  erected  without  let 
or  hindrance.  The  nonimportation  resolutions  and  the 
embargo  combined  to  stop  the  inflow  of  foreign  goods, 
and  the  special  demands  created  by  the  war  gave  extraor- 
dinary stimulus  to  certain  industries.  Cannon,  muskets, 
anchors,  etc.,  no  longer  to  be  had  from  England,  were 
wrought  in  the  foundries  of  East  Bridgewater,  Canton, 
Springfield,  and  Easton,  Massachusetts.  Considerable 
steel  was  made  into  muskets  at  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania, 
and  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The  Sterling  works  cast 
the  guns  for  the  battleship  Constilition  and  the  links  of 
the  iron  chain  that  was  stretched  across  the  Hudson  at 
West  Point  as  a  barrier  against  the  British  fleet.  At  the 
Principio  works  in  Maryland  the  EngUsh  owners  having 


i< 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         117 

lost  control,  cannon  balls  were  cast  for  the  use  of  the 
Continental  army.  The  fact  that  the  Washington  family 
held  one  twelfth  interest  in  the  plant  may  have  determined 
this  patriotic  service. 

Salt  was  another  necessity  that  had  now  to  be  produced 
at  home,  the  supply  from  Portugal  and  the  West  Indies 
being  cut  off  by  the  war.  The  salt  works  along  the  New 
England  coast  immediately  doubled  their  capacity.  Tanks 
for  boiling  the  brine  were  set  up  at  New  Bedford  and  on 
the  "  back  side  "  of  Cape  Cod.  The  salt  wells  of  Onondaga 
County,  New  York,  long  known  to  explorers  and  pioneers, 
began  to  produce  for  the  market  in  1788. 

The  textile  industries  experienced  no  slight  advantage 
from  the  decade  during  which  domestic  manufactures 
had  the  monopoly  of  the  American  market.  Clothing 
for  the  army  as  well  as  for  ordinary  wear  was  made  up  at 
home,  and  many  a  militiaman  went  to  the  war  clad  in  a 
suit  made  of  wool  shorn  from  his  own  sheep,  spun  and  woven 
and  fashioned  by  the  women  of  his  household.  Production 
was  stimulated  by  the  war  demand,  and  every  community 
strove  to  produce  greater  skill,  better  implements,  and  more 
raw  material.  Governor  Colden  of  New  York  had  re- 
ported to  the  Board  of  Trade  in  1765  that  "  all  the  wool 
in  America  is  not  sufficient  to  make  stockings  for  the  in- 
habitants," but  systematic  effort  increased  the  supply  to 
the  point  of  meeting  immediate  need  in  the  decade  follow- 
ing. The  New  York  society  for  the  "  Promotion  of  Arts, 
Agriculture,  and  Economy"  offered  l^remiums  for  linen 
yarn,  linen  cloth,  woven  stockings,  etc.  The  sum  of  £10 
was  proposed  for  the  first  three  stocking  frames  of  iron 
that  should  be  set  up  in  the  colony,  a  medal  for  the  first 
flax  mill  run  by  water  power,  and  £30  for  the  first  bleach- 
ing field.  At  the  Manufactory  House  on  Tremont  Street, 
Boston,  a  spinning  school  was  opened  where  expert  mis- 
tresses taught  this  useful  and  popular  art.  William 
Molineux,  the  director,  boasted  that  they  had  ''  learned 
at  least  three  hundred  children  and  women  to  spin  in  the 
most  compleat  {sic)  manner."    A  dozen  looms  were  kept 


U.  S.  Census, 
1900, 
IX,  532. 

Dwight, 
III,  79-81. 


Bishop, 
I,  383-423- 

B  agnail, 
I,  Ch.  in. 


I 


Weeden, 
II.  732-733- 


11 


V   Ml 
'    Jlii'l 


\{ 


Phillips, 
II,  314-330. 


118      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

busy  weaving  woolens,  Hnen,  duck,  and  saQcloth,  and  a 
bleaching  yard,  fulling  mill,  and  dye  works  were  operated 
on  the  same  premises ;  but  the  occupation  of  Boston  by 
British  troops  and  the  subsequent  siege  ruined  this  enter- 
prise.    The  American  Manufactory,  set  up  on  the  corner 
of  Ninth  and  Market  Streets,  Philadelphia,  employed  some 
five  hundred  people  in  making  linen  and  woolen  cloth. 
The  yarn  was  suppHed  by  women  who  spun  in  their  own 
homes  the  flax  and  wool  furnished  them  by  the  company. 
The  business  was  suspended  with  the  British  occupation ; 
but  another  Philadelphia  factory,  established  by  Samuel 
Wetherill,  successfully  filled  a  large  contract  for  army 
clothing,  woven  and  made  up  in  the  same  shop.     Reading 
and  Lancaster  were  also  important  manufacturing  centers. 
In  New  Jersey  there  were  forty-one  fulling  mills  for  fin- 
ishing the  cloth  woven  in  the  farmhouses,  but  no  factories. 
The  hnen  and  woolen  factory  of  Baltimore,  opened  in 
1776,  was  granted  a  subsidy  by  the  state  legislature,  and 
several  private  enterprises  were  soon  established.     Every- 
where north  of  the  Chesapeake  the  output  of  linen  and 
woolen  cloth  was  sufficient  for  domestic  needs.     Farther 
south  the  native  cotton  was  the  only  available  fiber,  and 
spinning  wheels  and  looms  were   scarce.     Nevertheless, 
the  patriotic  managed  to  clothe  themselves  and  their  slaves 
with  homespun,  and  a  considerable  industry  was  developed. 
In  1786  Jefferson  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  The  four  southern- 
most states  make  a  great  deal  of  cotton.    Their  poor  are 

almost  entirely  clothed  with  it  in  Winter  and  Summer 
the  dress  of  the  women  is  almost  entirely  of  cotton  manu- 
factured by  themselves,  except  the  richer  class,  and  even 
many  of  these  wear  a  good  deal  of  home-spun  cotton.     It 
is  as  well  manufactured  as  the  calicoes  of  Europe." 

The  Farmer's  Opportunity.  —  Certain  agricultural  in- 
terests suffered  from  the  withdrawal  of  the  British  bounties. 
The  turpentine  industry  felt  the  effect  of  falling  prices,  and 
the  indigo  planters  were  ruined.  Lumbermen  discovered 
that  full  license  to  fell  the  finest  trees  hardly  compensated 
for  the  failure  of  the  British  bounties.    These  losses  were 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         119 

eventually  made  good  by  the  opening  of  new  markets  in 
Europe  and  by  the  increase  in  the  domestic  demand  con- 
sequent on  the  rapid  growth  of  population.  For  the  rice 
and  tobacco  planters,  the  removal  of  all  restraint  on  the 
destination  of  their  exports  was  an  unqualified  advantage. 

Of  even  greater  importance  to  the  agricultural  future 
of  the  country  was  the  abohtion  by  the  state  legislatures 
of  every  vestige  of  feudal  land  tenure.  The  agitation  was 
begun  by  Thomas  Jefferson  in  Virginia  and  was  taken  up 
by  the  democratic  leaders  of  the  other  Southern  states. 
Primogeniture  no  longer  determined  the  line  of  inheritance 
and  perpetuated  great  estates,  while  entail  and  all  other 
restraints  on  the  transfer  of  landed  property  ceased.  The 
payment  of  quitrents  was  no  longer  required,  and  the  fee 
simple  titles  became  absolute  and  unconditioned.  The 
rights  of  the  proprietors  to  the  unsettled  districts  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  Maryland  terminated,  and  these  estates, 
together  with  the  crown  lands,  lapsed  to  the  state.  New 
York  and  Massachusetts  sold  their  western  lands  in  large 
tracts  to  speculators  who  resold  at  an  advanced  price  to 
actual  farmers.  So  the  fertile  lowlands  that  formed  the 
ancient  bed  of  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie  were  settled, 
and  prosperous  little  communities  developed. 

The  Antislavery  Movement.  —  The  importation  of 
African  slaves  had  been  regarded  as  a  temporary  necessity 
that  would  cease  when  immigration  and  the  natural  growth 
of  population  should  render  the  supply  of  white  labor 
sufficient.  Even  in  the  Southern  colonies,  where  slave 
labor  was  evidently  profitable,  it  was  keenly  felt  that  the 
planter's  money  gain  was  more  than  offset  by  the  social  and 
political  evils  that  might  accrue  to  the  community.  South 
Carolina,  Maryland,  and  Virginia  had  each  attempted 
to  restrict  the  importation  of  slaves  by  laying  customs 
duties,  sometimes  so  high  as  to  be  prohibitory.  Any  serious 
check  on  the  slave  trade  was,  however,  quite  inconsistent 
with  British  policy,  and  adverse  legislation  was  promptly 
vetoed.  The  Royal  African  Company  was  importing 
annually  (17 13-1733)  from  five  to  ten  thousand  slaves 


Sato, 

Land  Ques- 
tion in  U.S. 
273-277. 

Weld, 
172-173. 


Randall, 
Life  of 
Jefferson, 

I,  194-229, 
397-400. 

Shepherd, 
Proprietary 
Government 
in  Pennsyl- 
vania, 
1-93- 
Weld, 

II,  325-338. 

Dubois, 
Suppression 
of  the  Slave 
Trade, 
Ch.  II-V. 

American 
Husbandry, 

I,  228-229, 
246,  264, 

415-424, 
427-428; 

II.  25,  29, 
345,  395. 


1 


McCrady, 
II,  Ch. 
XIII,  XX. 

PhiUips, 
II»  29-30. 


Tucker, 
Dissertation 
on  Slavery, 
45- 


120      Industrial  History  of  the   Uftited  States 

to  the  American  colonies,  and  its  stockholders  had  great 
social  and  political  influence.  After  the  monopoly  was 
withdrawn,  private  merchants  urged  the  continuance  of 
this  highly  profitable  trade.  In  1 7 1 7  Maryland  laid  a  duty 
on  imported  slaves.  Virginia  had  imposed  a  duty  of  £5 
in  1 7 10,  but  the  bill  was  rejected  by  Governor  Spotswood 
because  of  the  check  on  importation.  Similar  bills  passed 
the  House  of  Burgesses  in  1723,  1766,  and  1769,  only  to 
be  disposed  of  by  veto.  South  Carolina  laid  import  duties 
rangmg  from  £10  to  £100  and  proposed  to  devote  the 
revenue  collected  to  defraying  the  expense  of  bringing 
in  white  servants.  In  1760  the  legislature  passed  a  law 
forbidding  the  importation  of  slaves  into  this  colony; 
but  the  act  was  disallowed  by  the  Privy  Council,  and  the 
governor  who  had  signed  it  was  reprimanded.  In  1772 
the  Virginia  Assembly  addressed  a  protest  to  the  king. 
"  The  importation  of  slaves  into  the  colonies  from  th<'  coast 
of  Africa  hath  long  been  considered  as  a  trade  of  great  in- 
humanity, and  under  its  present  encouragement,  we  have 
too  much  reason  to  fear  will  endanger  the  very  existence 
of  your  majesty's  American  dominions.  .  .  .  Deeply 
impressed  with  these  sentiments,  we  most  humbly  beseech 
your  majesty  to  remove  all  those  restraints  on  your  maj- 
esty's governors  of  this  colony,  which  inhibit  their  assent- 
mg  to  such  laws  as  might  check  so  very  pernicious  a 
commerce." 

In  the  Northern  colonies  the  economic  as  well  as  social 
and  poHtical  advantage  was  with  free  white  labor,  and 
but  few  slaves  were  held.  The  trade  in  slaves  was,  how- 
ever, a  highly  profitable  one.  Duties  were  levied  at  the 
ports  both  for  revenue  and  to  discourage  importation,  but 
the  trade  was  left  untrammeled  by  the  provision  that  the 
duty  should  be  remitted  in  fuU  when  the  slave  was  re- 
exported. Boston  and  Newport  and  other  New  England 
ports  became  open  slave  marts  where  slaves  brought  from 
the  Gold  Coast  were  held  untU  a  suitable  market  should 
be  found. 

The  struggle  for  independence  wakened  a  keener  ap- 


Indus trial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  121 


preciation  of  human  rights.  Slavery  had  long  been  pro-  Locke, 
tested  by  the  Society  of  Friends  on  reUgious  grounds,  Anti-Slaveiy 
and  the  protection  given  to  the  slave  trade  by  Great  "'^^"'*- 
Britain  was  resented  as  an  ugly  phase  of  her  selfish  colonial 
poUcy.  Virginia,  in  her  nonimportation  resolutions  of 
1769,  had  recommended  that  merchants  import  no  slaves 
and  purchase  none  imported  until  the  Townshend  Acts 
should  be  repealed,  and  the  nonimportation  movement  of 
1774  called  out  declarations  from  both  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  against  the  further  importation  of  slaves.  Mas- 
sachusetts (1771  and  1774)  and  Delaware  (1774)  under- 
took to  prohibit  importation,  but  their  bills  were  vetoed 
by  the  royal  governors.  The  Rhode  Island  Friends 
succeeded  in  securing  a  law  forbidding  the  importation  of 
negroes ;  but  a  permissive  clause  allowed  vessels  belong- 
ing to  that  colony  to  bring  in  slaves  that  could  not  be  sold 
in  the  West  Indies,  provided  the  master  gave  bond  to 
deport  every  such  slave  within  the  year.  Connecticut 
alone  achieved  absolute  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade 
(1774)  before  the  war.  On  October  15,  1774,  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  in  behalf  of  all  the  colonies,  resolved : 
"  We  will  neither  import  nor  purchase  any  slave  imported 
after  the  first  day  of  December  next;  after  which  time 
we  will  wholly  discontinue  the  slave  trade,  and  will  neither 
be  concerned  in  it  ourselves  nor  will  we  hire  our  vessels 
nor  sell  our  commodities  or  manufactures  to  those  who  are 
concerned  in  it."  This  remarkable  declaration  called  out 
little  comment  except  in  Georgia.  There  the  planters 
put  up  a  strong  opposition,  and  the  ratification  of  the 
agreement  was  delayed  until  the  threat  of  a  boycott  forced 
the  laggard  colony  to  fall  into  line.  On  April  3,  1776, 
Congress  voted  that  no  slave  "  be  imported  into  any  of  the 
thirteen  colonies  "  ;  but  this  prohibition  marks  the  high- 
tide  of  the  anti-slavery  movement. 

In  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  Writings  of 
the  king  of  Great  Britain  is  charged  with  waging  "  cruel  Jefferson, 
war  against  human  nature  itself,  violating  its  most  sacred  ^'  '^" 
rights  of  life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people 


Writings  of 
Jefferson, 
I  34- 


122      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

who  never  offended  him,  captivating  &  carrying  them 
into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable 
death  in  their  transportation  thither.  .  .  .  Determined 
to  keep  open  a  market  where  MEN"  should  be  bought  & 
sold,  he  has  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing  every 
legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  to  restrain  this  execrable 
commerce."  Spite  of  the  great  influence  of  Jefferson 
and  the  efforts  of  the  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  delegates, 
this  denunciation  of  the  slave  trade  was  struck  out  of  the 
final  form,  "in  complaisance  to  South  CaroUna  and 
Georgia,  who  had  never  attempted  to  restrain  the  impor- 
tation of  slaves,  and  who,  on  the  contrary,  still  wished  to 
continue  it.  Our  northern  brethren  also,  I  beheve, 
felt  a  little  tender  under  those  censures ;  for  though  their 
people  had  very  few  slaves  themselves,  yet  they  had  been 
pretty  considerable  carriers  of  them  to  others." 

The  basis  for  this  accusation  of  comphcity  was  soon 
removed.  In  the  years  immediately  following  on  the 
adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  ^the  Northern  states 
without  exception  barred  the  slave  traders  from  their 
ports.  Massachusetts,  in  1780,  abohshed  slavery  within 
her  jurisdiction.  Before  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, gradual  emancipation  had  been  ordained  by  law  in 
all  the  New  England  states,  as  well  as  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.  The  emancipation  movement  found  ex- 
pression in  the  generous  offer  made  by  most  of  the  Northern 
states  of  full  and  complete  freedom  to  any  negro  or  in- 
dentured servant  who  would  enHst  for  service  in  the  Con- 
tinental army,  while  Congress  undertook,  at  Washington's 
urgent  request,  to  recoup  the  masters  of  enhsted  servants 
by  grants  from  the  public  domain.  One  of  the  important 
effects  of  the  Revolutionary  War  was  to  convert  a  con- 
siderable number  of  emancipated  slaves  and  indentured 
servants  into  free  laborers  and  farmers. 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         123 


The  Conquest  of  the  Ohio  VaUey 

The  struggle  for  independence  had  two  distinct  phases. 
The  first  and  best  known,  the  revolt  against  British  rule, 
was  the  work  of  the  Atlantic  coast  colonies ;  the  second 
and  hardly  yet  appreciated,  the  winning  of  the  Western 
territory,  was  the  achievement  of  the  pioneers  who  pushed 
across  the  mountains  and  took  possession  of  the  country 
drained  by  the  streams  that  empty  into  the  Mississippi. 
North  of  the  Ohio  River  and  south  of  the  Tennessee,  two 
great  Indian  confederacies  held  sway,  the  Iroquois  and  the 
Cherokee.  Between  these  hostile  "  nations  "  lay  a  de- 
batable country  which  no  Indian  tribe  dared  claim.  A 
rich,  heavily  forested  region,  teeming  with  game,  it  was 
frequently  raided  by  hunting  parties  seeking  deer,  elk, 
or  buffalo,  or  by  war  bands  in  pursuit  of  human  prey; 
but  the  aborigines  planted  nothing  more  substantial  than 
summer  camps  within  the  "  dark  and  bloody  ground." 
This  unoccupied  territory  was  the  path  of  least  resistance 
for  the  impending  westward  movement  of  white  civiliza- 
tion. It  was  claimed  by  Virginia  in  virtue  of  the  "  sea 
to  sea  "  grant  made  to  the  London  Company  by  James  I, 
but  the  paper  title  would  have  counted  for  Httle  had  not 
the  land  been  peopled  by  Virginians.  The  fact  that  the 
most  practicable  mountain  passes  opened  from  Virginia 
gave  her  citizens  first  entry  into  the  new  territory,  and  thus 
she  became  the  mother  of  the  first  commonwealths  beyond 
the  mountains.  From  the  *  Great  Valley  four  natural 
highways  led  across  the  Alleghanies :  up  the  Potomac  to 
Fort  Cumberland,  over  the  pass  and  down  the  Yough- 
iogheny  to  the  Monongahela,  and  so  down  to  Fort  Pitt  and 
the  Ohio,  and  thence  by  raft,  keel  boat,  or  schooner  to  the 
Falls.  This  last  portion  of  the  route  was  speedy  but  haz- 
ardous, for  the  river  was  treacherous  except  at  high  water, 
and  hostile  Indians  lurked  in  the  forests  of  the  northern 
shore.  The  Greenbriar  and  Kanawha  cut  a  second  pass 
over  which,  the  rivers  being  impracticable,  a  road  was 
later  built  into  the  heart  of  Kentucky.     But  most  of  the 


Roosevelt 
I,  Ch.  V, 
VI,  VII. 

Winsor, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  IV,  VI. 

Imlay, 
Description 
of  Western 
Territory. 


Semple, 
Ch.  IV. 


Hulbert, 

Braddock's 

Road, 

Ch.  VI,  VIII 

James  Flint, 
Letters  from 
America, 

97.  los, 
109-110. 


Hulbert, 
Boone's 
Wilderness 
Road. 


:t 


Roosevelt, 
I,  Ch.  X, 
XII ;  II,  Ch. 
Vin,  XI. 


ff 


Weld, 

I,  214-216, 

230-234. 


124      Industrial  Histojy  of  the  United  States 

men  who  crossed  the  mountains  in  the  Revolutionary 
period  chose  the  path  over  Cumberland  Gap.  This  route 
was  comparatively  free  from  Indians  and  practicable  at  all 
seasons.  The  Tennessee  River,  navigable  for  boats  of 
light  draft,  from  its  source  in  Holston  Valley  till  it  empties 
into  the  Ohio,  made  another  highroad  into  the  wilderness ; 
but  this  river  was  far  more  difficult  than  the  Ohio,  and  its 
banks  were  infested  by  Indian  freebooters,  the  (^hicka- 
maugas.  Nevertheless  this  was  the  usual  route  into  the 
southwest  territory. 

The  Backwoods  Settlements.  —  Adventurous  hunters, 
French  and  Spanish  Creoles,  as  well  as  Americans,  had 
penetrated  the  wilderness  beyond  the  mountains  in  pur- 
suit of  game  and  pelts.  Indefatigable  traders  from 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  floated  their  merchandise 
down  the  rivers  and  followed  the  buffalo  trails  far  into  the 
interior,  carrying  on  stout  pack  horses  the  rum,  firearms, 
and  trinkets  that  were  to  be  exchanged  at  fabulous  profit 
for  skins  and  furs.  Surveyors,  sent  out  by  state  authorities 
or  by  land  speculators,  ran  their  boundary  lines  through 
the  primeval  forest  with  infinite  toil  and  no  little  danger, 
but  since  each  party  worked  quite  independently,  their 
surveys  resulted  in  an  inextricable  tangle  of  conflicting 
claims.  None  of  these,  however,  were  settlers;  they  but 
prepared  the  way  for  the  real  westward  movement.  The 
coming  of  the  pioneer  farmers,  the  men  who  proposed 
taking  up  land  and  building  homes,  coincided  with  the 
epoch  of  the  Revolution.  By  1770  tidewater  Virginia 
was  full  to  overflowing,  and  the  ''  back  country  "  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  and  the  Shenandoah  was  fully  occupied. 
Even  the  mountain  valleys  of  the  Yadkin,  the  Watauga, 
the  French  Broad,  and  the  Holston,  were  claimed  by 
colonies  of  sturdy  pioneers.  Before  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  the  oncoming  tide  of  home  seekers  had 
reached  the  crest  of  the  Alleghanies. 

The  invading  wave  gathered  in  its  tide  men  of  diverse 
races  and  conditions.  Scotch-Irish  and  Germans  moved 
south  along  the  Great  VaUey  from  Pennsylvania  or  up  the 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  125 


seagoing  rivers  from  Charleston.  Dutch  from  the  Hudson, 
Swedes  from  the  Delaware,  Huguenots  from  the  port 
towns,  "  followed  the  immigration."  Every  man  who 
felt  the  need  of  elbowroom  and  had  pluck  and  muscle  for 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  frontier,  ventured  his  fate  in  Ken- 
ta-ke.  Younger  sons  of  planters  seeking  land,  redemp- 
tioners  who  had  served  their  terms  and  others  escaped 
from  service,  political  offenders  and  ne'er-do-weels,  out- 
laws of  every  type,  sought  a  chance  to  better  their  fortunes 
in  the  new  world  beyond  the  mountains.  The  adventure 
was  as  great  as  that  made  by  the  first  settlers  at  Plymouth 
and  Jamestown.  The  journey  across  the  Appalachians 
was  quite  as  serious  an  obstacle  as  the  transatlantic  voyage, 
the  costs  were  no  less,  and  the  dangers  far  greater.  The 
men  and  women  who  had  the  hardihood  to  make  this  trip, 
by  foot  or  on  pack  horse,  over  the  Indian-haunted  trails, 
were  steeled  for  the  multiform  adversities  of  the  backwoods. 
The  first  permanent  settlement  in  Kentucky  was  fi- 
nanced by  the  Transylvania  Company,  a  business  associa- 
tion organized  by  Richard  Henderson,  a  surveyor  from 
North  Carolina,  a  "  man  of  no  inconsiderable  abilities 
and  more  enterprise."  He  secured  title  to  the  region  Thwaites, 
between  the  Kentucky  and  the  Cumberland  rivers  by  treaty  Daniel 
with  the  Cherokees  and  immediately  sent  a  party  of  thirty  c^.  ix. 
men  imder  guidance  of  Daniel  Boone,  the  famous  hunter 
and  surveyor,  to  clear  a  trail  from  the  Holston  to  the 
Kentucky  and  to  build  there  a  palisaded  fort.  On  the 
20th  of  April,  1775,  Henderson  arrived  in  Boonesborough 
with  the  bulk  of  the  colonists.  There  he  opened  a  land 
office  and  proceeded  to  grant  farms  in  tracts  of  four  hun- 
dred acres  and  upwards.  Henderson  anticipated  a  revenue 
from  quitrents  due  on  the  land  and  from  the  trade  that 
would  develop  with  the  settlements,  but  he  was  disap- 
pointed. The  unruly  pioneers  refused  to  pay  rent,  and 
the  Virginia  authorities  protested  his  Indian  title,  so  the 
Transylvania  Company  came  to  grief;  but  the  grants 
made  to  actual  settlers  were  ultimately  confirmed  in  fee 
simple  by  the  legislature  of  Virginia. 


\ 


Imlay, 
149. 


I 


■ 


Roosevelt, 

I,  Ch.  XI ; 

II,  Ch.  I-V ; 

III,  Ch.  II, 
VII ;  IV, 
Ch.  I,  II. 

Winsor, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  VIII, 
XIII. 


126      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Three  other  settlements  were  founded  in  Kentucky  in 
1775,  Harrodstown,  Boiling  Spring,  and  St.  Asaphs  or 
Logan's  Station.  In  1779  John  Robertson,  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  Watauga  colony,  led  a  migration  along  the 
Cumberland  River  to  the  Bluffs  and  there  founded  Nash- 
boro.  Every  such  settlement  centered  in  a  palisaded 
village  where  the  families  were  housed  during  the  Indian 
raids.  Each  settler  felled  the  trees,  planted  corn,  and  built 
a  log  hut  in  the  land  assigned  him ;  but  the  cabins  in  the 
isolated  clearings  could  not  be  defended  against  serious 
assault. 

Indian  Wars.  —  Ever  since  the  acquisition  of  this 
territory  in  1763,  it  had  been  the  policy  of  the  British 
government  to  withhold  the  lands  from  settlement  in  the 
interest  of  the  fur  trade.  Now  that  the  settlers  were  also 
rebels,  a  systematic  effort  was  made  to  drive  them  back 
to  the  seaboard.  Cameron,  the  representation  of  King 
George  on  the  Carolina  frontier,  incited  the  Cherokees 
to  take  the  warpath  against  the  invaders,  and  throughout 
1776  the  border  settlements  were  ravaged  by  fire  and 
tomahawk.  The  Watauga  men,  aided  by  militia  from 
Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  finally 
succeeded  in  forcing  the  tribes  to  make  peace  and  to  yield 
a  considerable  portion  of  their  lands  to  the  Americans. 
Thenceforth  the  pack  trains  of  the  i)ioneers  traveled  the 
Wilderness  Road  free  from  the  fear  of  molestation. 

In  Kentucky  the  contest  against  the  Indians  and  their 
British  allies  proved  an  even  more  serious  affair,  for  Hamil- 
ton, the  British  commander  at  Detroit,  supplied  tht;  Iro- 
quois with  arms  and  bribed  them  to  raid  the  American 
outposts.  No  frontier  settlement,  from  Fort  Pitt  and  Fort 
Henry  on  the  Ohio  to  the  palisaded  villages  of  Kentucky, 
was  exempt  from  their  cruel  assaults.  The  ferocity  of  the 
savages  was  matched  by  the  fury  of  the  backwoodsmen, 
many  of  whom  cherished  an  hereditary  hatred  of  England, 
most  of  whom  had  lost  wife  or  child  or  friend  through  this 
latest  development  of  British  policy.  All  the  toil  and 
suffering  that  had  gone  to  the  building  of  the  frontier 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution         127 

settlements  seemed  likely  to  end  in  ruin,  when  Colonel 
George  Rogers  Clark,  the  most  adroit  of  Indian  fighters, 
determined  to  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country. 
Having  secured  funds  and  ammunition  from  Patrick 
Henry,  then  governor  of  Virginia,  he  issued  a  call  for 
volunteers.  The  mother  state  could  spare  no  men ;  but 
the  "  long  hunters  "  of  the  frontier  found  here  their  op- 
portunity to  pay  off  old  grudges,  and  they  rallied  to  Clark's 
standard  at  Fort  Pitt.  Four  companies  of  picked  men 
with  their  equipment  floated  down  the  Ohio  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Tennessee,  and  there,  disembarking,  they  marched 
overland  to  the  French  settlements  on  the  Kaskaskia  and 
the  Wabash.  Taken  by  surprise,  the  habitants  surrendered 
without  a  blow;  they  were  quite  as  well  content  to  be 
"congress  men"  as  king's  men,  since  both  were  alien 
powers.  The  Indian  chiefs,  gathered  at  Cahokia,  were 
overawed  by  the  prowess  of  the  "long  knives,"  and 
Clark's  diplomacy  soon  persuaded  them  to  make  peace 
with  the  Americans.  Hamilton,  then  in  winter  quarters 
at  Vincennes,  preparing  an  attack  on  Fort  Pitt,  was  caught 
off  his  guard  and  forced  to  yield  his  little  garrison  (1778). 
Thus  Congress  became  the  dominant  power  both  north 
and  south  of  the  Ohio,  and  thus,  when  five  years  later 
peace  was  made  with  Great  Britain,  all  the  British  territory 
between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Floridas  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States. 

Peace  and  Prosperity.  —  The  country  once  freed  from  Roosevelt, 
danger  of  Indian  outrage,  settlers  crossed  the  mountains  ii.  Ch.  vii 
"in  shoals."     Twelve  thousand  people  came  out  in  1784  ni™'i- 
to  Kentucky  alone.     When  the  first  United  States  census  iv.'ch.'v.' 
was  taken,  fifteen  years  after  the  building  of  Boonesborough, 
there  were  more  than  seventy  thousand  whites  in  Kentucky 
and  thirty-five  thousand  odd  in  Tennessee.     There  were 
probably  in  1790  four  hundred  thousand  settlers  on  the 
rivers  that  flow  into  the  Mississippi. 

North  Carolina  opened  a  land  oflice  in  the  Watauga 
Valley  in  1778  and  offered  farms  on  easy  terms.  Every 
head  of  a  family  might  take  up  six  hundred  and  forty 


Michaux, 
225—228. 


Imlay, 
134-136. 


Drake, 
Pioneer 
in  Ken- 
tucky, 42 


Life 


128      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

acres  on  his  own  account,  one  hundred  for  his  wife,  and 
one  hundred  for  each  child.     The  price  was  $10  per  hun- 
dred acres;    but  since  this  might  be  paid  in  depreciated 
currency  or  set  off  against  military  service,  the  settlers 
had  no  difficulty  in  securing  full  title.     South  Carolina 
offered  similar  terms  for  her  Cherokee  lands  in  1784.    Vir- 
ginia (1779)  offered  the  Kentucky  pioneers  four-hundred- 
acre  tracts  at  the  rate  of  s$2.5o  per  hundred,  on  condition 
that  a  house  should  be  built  and  corn  planted  within  the 
year.     Every  man  who  could  prove  such  a  *'  cabin  right  " 
had  a  preemption  claim  to  one  thousand  acres  more  at 
a  cost  of  $40  per  hundred.     Clark's  men  were  rewarded 
in  bounty  lands  north  of  the  Ohio,  three  hundred  acres 
each,  while  the  arrears  of  pay  due  the  soldiers  of  the  Con- 
tinental army  were  made  good  in  the  same  inexpensive 

fashion. 

A  contemporary  writer  has  left  a  careful  statement  of 
what  such  a  pioneer  might  accomplish.     "  A  log-house  is 
very  soon  erected,  and  in  conseciuence  of  the  fritmdly  dis- 
position which  exists  among  those  hospitable  people,  every 
neighbor  flew  to  the  assistance  of  each  other  upon  occasions 
of  emergency.     Sometimes  they  were  built  of  round  logs 
entirely,  covered  with  rived  ash  shingles,  and  the  inter- 
stices stopped  with  clay,  or  lime  and  sand,  to  keep  out  the 
weather.     The  next  object  was  to  open  the  land  for  culti- 
vation.   There  is  very  little  under- wood  in  any  part  of 
this  country,  so  that  by  cutting  up  the  cane,  and  girdJing 
the  trees,  you  are  sure  of  a  crop  of  corn.    The  fertility 
of  the  soil  amply  repays  the  laborer  for  his  toil ;    for  if 
the  large  trees  are  not  very  numerous,  and  a  large  pro- 
portion of  them  the  sugar  maple,  it  is  very  likely  from  this 
imperfect    cultivation    that  the  ground  will  yield  from 
fifty  to  sixty  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre.    The  second  crop 
will  be  more  ample ;  and  as  the  shade  is  removed  by  cutting 
the  timber  away,  great  part  of  our  land  will  produce  from 
seventy  to  one  hundred  bushels  of  corn  from  an  acre. 
This  extraordinary  fertility  enables  the  farmer  who  has 
but  a  small  capital  to  increase  his  wealth  in  a  most  rapid 


Industrial  Aspects  of  the  Revolution  129 


^ir^-tougUude  a 


I30      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

,1 

manner  (I  mean  by  wealth  the  comforts  of  life) .  His  cattle 
and  hogs  will  find  sufiicient  food  in  the  woods,  not  only 
for  them  to  subsist  upon,  but  to  fatten  them.  His  horses 
want  no  provender  the  greatest  part  of  the  year,  except 
cane  and  wild  clover ;  but  he  may  afford  to  feed  them  with 
corn  the  second  year.  His  garden,  with  little  attention, 
produces  him  all  the  culinary  roots  and  vegetables  necessary 
for  his  table;  and  the  prolific  increase  of  his  hogs  and 
poultry  will  furnish  him  the  second  year,  without  fearing 
to  injure  his  stock,  with  a  plenty  of  animal  food ;  and  in 
three  or  four  years  his  stock  of  cattle  and  sheep  will  ])rove 
sufficient  to  supply  him  with  both  beef  and  mutton ;  and 
he  may  continue  his  plan  at  the  same  time  of  increasing 
his  stock  of  those  useful  animals.  By  the  fourth  year, 
provided  he  is  industrious,  he  may  have  his  plantation 
in  sufficient  good  order  to  build  a  better  house,  which  he 
can  do  either  of  stone,  brick,  or  a  framed  wooden  building, 
the  principal  articles  of  which  will  cost  him  Httle  more 
than  the  labor  of  himself  and  domestics;  and  he  may 
readily  barter  or  sell  some  part  of  the  superfluous  pro- 
ductions of  his  farm,  which  it  will  by  this  time  afford,  and 
procure  such  things  as  he  may  stand  in  need  of  for  the 
completion  of  his  building.  Apples,  peaches,  pears,  etc., 
he  ought  to  plant  when  he  finds  a  soil  or  eligible  situa- 
tion to  plant  them  in,  as  that  will  not  hinder,  or  in  any 
degree  divert,  him  from  the  object  of  his  aggrandizement. 
I  have  taken  no  notice  of  the  game  he  might  kill,  as  it  is 
more  a  sacrifice  of  time  to  an  industrious  man  than  any 
real  advantage."  Once  cleared  and  brought  under  culti- 
vation, the  limestone  soil  yielded  amazing  crops  of  corn, 
hemp,  and  tobacco.  The  buffalo  herds,  indispensable 
support  of  the  backwoodsmen,  disappeared  from  the 
cultivated  districts.  Cattle  were  pastured  on  the  native 
grasses  and  increased  both  in  weight  and  numbers,  while 
the  horses  brought  from  Virginia  grew  strong  and  fleet 
beyond   seaboard  standards. 

Manufactures  and  trade  developed  with  population  and 
security.     Shoes  were  substituted  for  moccasins,  and  linen 


a, 

X 


2 

O 

■o 

2 
'J 


n 


i 


Industrial  Aspects  of  ,the  Revolution 


131 


and  woolen  cloth  for  buckskin,  all  being  made  up  at  home 
Tanneries  were  set  up  for  the  tanning  of  hides,  and  the 
primitive  hand  mills  were  superseded  by  gristmills  run  by 
water  power.     Saddlers,  blacksmiths,  wheelwrights,  and 
carpenters   earned   good   wages   in    the   growing   towns 
Sugar  was  manufactured  from  the  sap  of  the  forest  maples 
Salt  was  evaporated  from  the  saline  springs  or  ''  licks  " 
on  the  Kanawha  in  sufficient  quantities  to  supply  the 
settlements  by  1793.     It  sold  at  from  $3  to  $5  a  bushel  • 
but  this  was  less  than  the  cost  of  transporting  it  by  pack 
horse  across  the  mountains.    A  retail  store  was  opened 
at  Lomsville  m  1783,  and  goods  imported  from  Philadelphia 
by  way  of  the  Ohio  were  sent  by  wagon  road  or  pack  trail 
to  the  thnvmg  settlements  of  the  interior.     There  was  as 
yet  Uttle  money  in  circulation,  and  exchange  was  effected 
by  barter:   salt,  peltries,  bear's  grease,  and  corn  bearing 
a  fixed  money  value.     Even  taxes  were  paid  in  produce 
A  compound  unit,  one  half  beef,  pork,  bear  meat,  or  veni- 
son, one  fourth  corn,  one  eighth  salt,  and  one  eighth 
money,  was  legal  tender  along  the  Cumberland. 


James  Flint, 
Letters  from 
America, 
129,  279-280. 


Michaux, 
167,  203-204. 


Lambert, 
n,  526-527. 


McMaster, 

Hist,  of 

People  of 

U.S., 

Ill,  485-486. 


I 


I. 


National  Beginnings 


133 


Callender, 
221-238. 


CHAPTER  V 

NATIONAL  BEGINNINGS 

Formative  Legislation 

The  Federal  Constitution.  —  The  necessity  of  establish- 
ing a  central  government  with  i>owers    adequate  to  the 
raising  of  a  revenue,  the  maintenance  of  a   uniform  and 
stable  currency,  the  negotiation  of  treaties  with  foreign 
nations,  and  the  arbitration  of  interstate  concerns,  had 
been  rendered  abundantly  evident  by  the    difficulties  of 
the  war  just  closed  and  by  four  years'  experience  of  anarchy 
under    the    Confederation.     The    thirteen    indc^pendent 
states  were  forced  to  set  up  a  central  authority  endowed 
with  all  the  powers  that  had  been  denied  to  the  British 
Parliament.    The  Federal  Congress,  though  fully  repre- 
sentative of  the  interests  of  the  i>eople,  was  regarded  with 
suspicion  by  the  state  governments,  and  power  to  legislate 
for  business  interests,  even  of  a  general  nature,  was  grudg- 
ingly conceded.     Congress  was  accorded  power      to  lay 
and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts  and  excises      m  order 
"  to  pay  the  debts  and  provide  for  the  common  defense 
and  general  welfare  of  the  United  States,"  "  to  regulate 
commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  among  the  several 
states,"  "  to  coin  money  and  regulate  the  value  thereof 
to  maintain  copyrights  and  patents,  to  establish  post- 
offices  and  post  roads.     As  an  offset  to  commercial  re^ 
strictions  likely  to  be  imposed  by  the  Federal  Congress, 
the  Southern  representatives  secured  a  clause  forbidding 
the  levy  of  duties  on  exports. 

The  states,  on  their  part,  surrendered  the  right  to  coin 
money,  emit  bills  of  credit,  or  make  anything  but  gold 
and  silver  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debt,  and  agreed  to 

132 


lay  no  tonnage  duties  or  duties  on  imports  without  the 
consent  of  Congress.  The  levying  of  such  indirect  taxes 
has  been  relegated  in  practice  to  the  United  States  govern- 
ment. No  state  was  permitted  to  enter  into  any  agree- 
ment or  compact  with  another  state  or  with  a  foreign 
power,  and  exclusive  authority  to  negotiate  treaties  was 
vested  in  the  President  and  Senate. 

An  attempt  to  rid  the  young  nation  of  the  blight  of 
African  bondage  by  prohibiting  the  importation  of  slaves 
was  made  in  the  Constitutional  Convention.     The  op- 
ponents of  slavery  urged  that  the  slave  trade  should  be 
stopped  at  once  and  for  all  time;    but  the  devastations 
of  war  had  considerably  reduced  the  labor  force  of  the 
Southern  states,  and  the  delegates  from  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  asserted  that  their  constituents  would  never 
accept  the  new  form  of  government  if  it  meant  the  cut- 
ting off  of  further  supplies.     The  debate  resulted  in  com- 
promise.    Congress  was  to  impose  no  restraint  on  the  slave 
trade  before  1808,  thus  allowing  the  rice  states  an  interval 
of  twenty-one  years  in  which  to  stock  their  plantations. 
The  Northern  states  gave  evidence  of  the  sincerity  of 
their  anti-slavery  convictions  in  the  immediate  prohibition 
of  all  traffic  in  slaves  at  their  own  ports.     The  offsetting 
concession  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  North  was 
the  omission  from  the  Constitution  of  the  amendment, 
urged  by  Southern  planters,  requiring  a  two-thirds'  ma- 
jority for  the  adoption  of  any  restrictions  on  navigation. 

Legislation  in  Behalf  of  Shipping.  —  The  merchants  of 
the  seaports,  finding  their  trade  injured  by  the  British 
Navigation  Act,  were  demanding  compensating  protection. 
One  of  the  first  petitions  received  by  the  Federal  Con- 
gress was  drawn  up  by  the  shipping  interests  of  Baltimore. 
It  stated  that  ''among  the  advantages  looked  for  from  the 
national  government  is  the  increase  of  the  shipping  and 
the  maritime  strength  of  the  United  States  of  America  by 
laws  similar  in  their  nature  and  operation  to  the  British 
Navigation  Acts."  The  shipmasters  of  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  and  the  shipwrights  of  Philadelphia,  petitioned 


Elliot's 
Debates, 

V,  457-532. 

Dubois, 
The  Slave 
Trade, 
Ch.  VI.  VIL 


Lambert, 
Travels, 

n,  163-174. 


Brissot  de 
Warville, 
Travels  in 
U.S., 
274-300. 


Bates, 

Am.  Marine, 

Ch.  VII. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
I,  5-8,  108. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 

1789-1791, 
I,  176-191, 
233-289. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
1789-1791, 
I.  258,  259. 


1 34      Industrial  History  of^  the  United  States 

to  the  same  effect,  begging  that  Congress  would  reUeve  the 
disasters  that  had  fallen  on  shipyards   throughout  the 
United  States  in  consequence  of  the  decline  in  that  branch 
of  business.     A  Massachusetts  representative,  Mr.  Good- 
hue, proposed  that  duties  to  the  amount  of  sixty  cents  per 
ton  be  levied  on  all  foreign  vessels  coming  into  our  harbors, 
as  an  offset  to  the  restrictions  imposed  on  American  vessels 
in  British  and  Continental  ports.     This  tonnage  duty  was 
protested  by  Tucker  of  South  CaroUna.     "  Some  States, 
it  is  well  known,  have  more  tonnage  than  is  sufficient  to 
carry  all  their  small  productions  to  a  market ;  of  course, 
a  duty  on  foreign  ships  will  not  affect  them.     Other  States, 
which  have  considerable  quantities  of  more  bulky  articles 
to  export,  and  require  a  greater  number  of  ships,  having 
few  or  none  of  their  own,  must  consequently  be  subjected 
to  the  whole  of  the  additional  duty  ;  for,  whether  the  vessels 
be  foreign  or  American,  the  freight  wHl  be  the  same.  Much 
of  the  produce  of  South  Carolina  is  carried  off  by  foreigners, 
and  in  American  shipping  a  considerable  quantity  is  ex- 
ported.    The  duty  will  be  paid  eciually,  in  either  case,  by 
the  shipper,  for  the  freight  of  American  vessels  will  be 
raised  to  an  equality  with  the  other ;  and  of  all  this  money 
so  paid,  there  comes  into  the  Treasury  that  part  only 
collected  from  foreigners;  the  rest,  as  I  said  before,  goes 
as  bounty  to  benefit  the  owners  of  American  ships." 

Of  the  437,641  tons  of  shipping  employed  in  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States,  about  one  third  was  owned 
by  foreigners.  The  proportion  varied  from  10  r)er  cent 
foreign  tonnage  in  the  ports  of  Massachusetts  to  67  per 
cent  in  those  of  Georgia.  It  was  evident  that  the  com- 
mercial states  would  gain  far  more  by  discriminating  duties 
than  an  agricultural  state  such  as  Virginia,  where  few 
seagoing  vessels  were  built  or  owned  and  where  52  per  cent 
of  the  exports  was  carried  by  foreigners.  The  result  of 
the  debate  was  the  Navigation  Act  of  1789,  by  which 
preference  was  given  in  the  ports  of  the  United  States  to  ves- 
sels either  built  or  owned  by  American  citizens.  Such  ships 
were  to  pay  tonnage  duties  at  the  rate  of  six  cents  per  ton 


National  Beginnings  j^- 

of  hold  capacity ;   vessels  built  in  the  T JnftpH  Qf  .      u 
partly  or  whollv  own^H  K,  7     •  ^^  ^^^^^^  ^"t 

cents  per  ton     LeTs  b^^^        ^''''^^T  "^"^^  P^^  ^^^^X 

^rTniffsft '  ^^^^^  ^^^^  were^Suirtlnri 

declared  the  forfeiture  oHl^^^^^^        ''^^"'^"^  "^  ^^^7 
vessel  f n  h^V.  }r     ^'''^''  ^^^^^  <>n  board  a  foreign 

sVasterrtt^lS^^^^^^^^ 

ine  enect  of  discnmmatinff  duties    anH  of  fi,^  1 

total  tonnage  registered  for  the  foreign  tr^^'t  f 
;^3,893  in  1789  to  981,0x9  in  r^^oZ  '^^t^Z-^Z 
foreign  trade  carried  on  in  United  States  vLdsCeased 
from  .3.6  per  cent  to  91.5  per  cent  during  the  sameTntervaf 

The  most  notable  development  of  these  v^r,wr 
trade  with  the  Orient.     Com^nerce  with  I^dia  and  Ph  n'" 
hitherto  monopolized  by  the  East  Ind;.  r  "*' 

fostered  by  special  dis^^Ltt  ' "te  uToT  rX 
levied  an  extra  dutv  of  12  c  n^r  r*.nf  ^  ^^nn  ot  1789 
from  India  and  Chil  i„  or  ign  v"se l  1^^'  T^""* 
of  from  Six  to  twelve  cents  /er  ^^^A  .ITJ^^^^^I 


Marvin, 
Ch.  XV. 


Holmes, 
U.S.A., 

187-195, 
208-210, 
216-236. 

Abbot, 
Ch.  I. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  IV,  VI. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 

^789-1791, 
I,  168-170 


136      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 


Distribution  of  Population,  1790 


National  Begifimngs 


n? 


American  vessels  direct  from  China ;  when  brought  in  an 
American  vessel  from  a  British  or  European  port,  the  duty 
paid  varied  from  eight  to  twenty-six  cents;  but  if  the 
whole  journey  was  made  in  foreign  bottoms,  the  charge 
was  from  fifteen  to  forty-five  cents.  Thus  the  East  India 
Company's  monopoly  was  effectually  broken  so  far  as 
commerce  with  America  was  concerned.  The  "China 
trade  "  centered  in  Boston,  Salem,  and  Providence.  At 
these  ports  Yankee  clippers  took  on  lumber,  naval  stores, 
salt  fish,  rum,  and  ginseng,  then  made  their  way  round  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  exchanging  the  cargo  en  route  for 
Madeira  wine,  the  precious  metals,  and  other  goods  suited 
to  the  Oriental  trade.  Arrived  at  its  ultimate  destination, 
these  goods  were  bartered  for  tea,  spices,  coffee,  silks, 
nankeen,  India  muslins,  saltpeter,  etc., —  articles  of  great 
value  in  proportion  to  bulk.  On  returning  home,  this  cargo 
might  be  sold  at  a  profit  or  reshipped  for  some  European 
port.  Trade  with  the  Orient  went  far  toward  compensat- 
ing the  merchants  of  New  England  for  the  exclusion  of 
American  vessels  from  the  ports  of  the  British  West 
Indies. 

Congressional  legislation  in  behalf  of  commerce  was 
not  lunited  to  discrimination  against  foreign  shipping. 
In  1790  was  passed  the  Act  for  the  Government  and  Regu- 
lation of  American  Seamen.  Under  this  law  a  written 
contract,  specifying  the  voyage  for  which  service  was  un- 
dertaken and  the  rate  of  wages  to  be  paid,  must  be  signed 
by  master  and  man  and  recorded  by  a  United  States 
official.  Seamen  deserting  the  ship  forfeited  their  wages 
and  might  be  reclaimed  and  forced  to  serve  to  the  end  of 
the  voyage.  The  captain,  on  the  other  hand,  was  required 
to  furnish  suitable  living  accommodations,  and  was  liable 
to  penalty  if  he  abandoned  an  American  sailor  in  a  foreign 
port.  An  act  of  1802  provided  for  the  erection  of  light- 
houses along  the  coast,  especially  on  Long  Island  Sound, 
light  money  being  provided  by  a  special  tax  of  fifty  cents 
per  ton  on  foreign  vessels.  In  1807  an  appropriation  of 
$50,000  was  made  for  the  coast  survey. 


Marvin, 
Ch.  X. 

Hawthorne, 
Introduction 
to  Scarlet 
Letter. 

Michaux, 
231-233. 
Kimball, 
East  India 
Trade  of 
Providence. 


Abbot, 
Ch.  X. 


138      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


i 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  185-192. 


McLaughlin, 
Ch.  VI. 


Snow, 

Treaties  and 
Topics  in 
Am.  Diplo- 
macy, 12-31. 


Stark, 
Abolition  of 
Privateering. 


Franklin's 
Works, 
On  War, 
X,  60-62 ; 
On  Privateer- 
ing, VIII, 
246-249. 


Commercial  Treaties.  —  The  governments  of  Europe 
were  eager  to  secure  to  their  subjects  some  share  in  the 
American  trade  hitherto  monopolized  by  Great  Britain. 
Early  in  the  course  of  the  War  for  Independence  overtures 
were  made  by  our  commissioners  at  the  courts  of  Holland, 
France,  and  Spain  looking  toward  commercial  negotiations. 
On  the  same  day  on  which  the  treaty  of  alliance  was  con- 
cluded between  Louis  XVI  and  the  seceding    colonies 
(January  30,  1778)  a  treaty  was  signed  establishing  mu- 
tually advantageous  trade  relations  between  France  and 
the  United  States  of  America.    Fishing  rights  on  the  Grand 
Banks  were  to  be  shared  on  equal  terms  by  French  and 
American  fishermen,  trade  with  the  French  West  Indies 
was  thrown  open  to  our  vessels,  and  France  was  assured 
the  most  favorable  terms  in  American  ports.    The  two 
nations  entered  into  important  guarantees  concerning  the 
exemption  of  neutral  trade  from  the  devastations  of  war. 
The  citizens  of  each  were  permitted  to  trade  freely  with  the 
enemies  of  the  other,  and  the  principle  that  free  ships 
make  free  goods  and  free  passengers  was  clearly  enunciated. 
Only  munitions  of  war  and  persons  engaged  in  the  military 
service  of  the  enemy  were  subject  to  capture.     Privateer- 
ing was  abandoned  so  far  as  affected  the  signatory  powers, 
"  the  citizens  of  each  party  "  being  ''  prohibited  from  taking 
commissions  from  a  third  party  to  cruise  against,   each 
other."     The  introduction  of  these  advanced  principles 
of   international   law  into  the  first  treaty  negotiated  by 
the  United  States  had  deep  significance.     In  the  next  ten 
years  most  of  the  nations  of  Europe  followed  the  lead  of 
Russia  and  France  in  the  effort  to  secure  neutral  trade 
against   the   devastations   of   war.      Benjamin   Franklin 
negotiated  the  treaty  with  Prussia  (1785)  in  which  the 
exemption  of  private  property  from  confiscation  and  the 
immunity  of  neutral  ships  was  guaranteed,  and  privateer- 
ing was  abandoned  as  between  the  contracting  j^arties. 
Contemporary    treaties     with    Sweden,    Denmark,    and 
Portugal  were  framed  to  the  same  intent.      In  his  treatises 
on  war  and  on  privateering,  our  first   great  diplomatist 


National  Beginnings 


139 


clearly  stated  his  own  conviction  that  war,  though  a  neces- 
sary  evil,  should  do  as  little  harm  as  might  be  to  non- 
combatants. 

In  1795  a  treaty  of  commerce  was  concluded  with  Spam 
The  merchant  ships  of  either  nation  were  declared  in- 
violate m  the  event  of  war,  and  their  cargoes  not  subject 
to  seizure.  No  citizen  of  Spain  or  of  the  United  States 
was  to  take  out  letters  of  marque  from  a  hostile  power 
with  the  intent  to  prey  upon  American  or  Spanish  com- 
merce, and  such  privateers  were  to  be  treated  as  pirates 
m  the  admiralty  courts.  The  only  serious  occasion  for 
war  between  the  two  nations  was  successfully  adjudicated 
Spain  conceded  the  western  boundary  of  the  United  States 
to  be  the  middle  channel  of  the  Mississippi,  and  free  navi- 
gation of  that  river  to  the  Gulf  was  temporarily  granted 
together  with  rights  of  deposit  at  New  Orieans. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Napoleonic  Wars  —  a  contest  that  was 
to  endure  for  twenty  years  and  to  involve  eventually  not 
only  England  and  France  but  all  the  states  of  Europe  — 
the  United  States  proclaimed  her  own  neutraHty  and  sought 
to  secure  from  the  combatants  stipulations  as  to  the  rights 
of  neutral  trade.     In  the  commercial  treaty  with  Great 
Britain  negodated  by  John  Jay  in  1794,  no  satisfactory 
stipulations  as  to  neutral  trade  were  obtained.     Not  arms 
and  ammunition  only,  but  naval  stores   and   foodstuffs 
destined  for  the  enemy's  use  were  regarded  contraband 
of  war  and  subject  to  seizure  with  or  without  indemni- 
fication,  and   the  privilege  of  privateering  was   upheld, 
in  spite  of  the  urgent  representations  of  the  Americari 
commissioner.     Some  abatement  of  the  Navigation  Acts 
was,  however,  secured.     American  vessels  were  accorded 
access  to  the  ports  of  the  British  dominions  in  Europe  and 
Asia,  but  this  concession  was  offset  by  the  limitarions 
retained   on    the   West   India   trade.     American    vessels 
not  above  seventy  tons'  burthen  were  to  be  allowed  to 
trade  with  Jamaica  and  the  Barbadoes,  provided  they 
carried  only  goods  produced  in  the  States  or  in  these  is- 
lands ;  but  this  grudging  concession  was  made  on  condition 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
n,  512-519. 


Pitkin, 
Hist,  of  U.S., 
II,  Ch.  XXII, 
XXIV, 
XXV. 

Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View, 
198-219. 


4 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  U.S., 
Ch.  I,  II. 

Rabbeno, 
111-133. 

Sheffield,  4- 


140      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

that  our  government  would  surrender  the  right  to  trans- 
port molasses,  sugar,  coffee,  cocoa,  or  cotton  from  America 
or  the  British  West  Indies  to  any  part  of  the  worid.  The 
price  of  entry  to  the  coveted  ports  was  to  be  the  loss  of  the 
carrying  trade  in  the  products  of  these  islands,  except  to 
American  markets.  This  article  of  the  treaty  was  rejected 
by  the  Senate,  and  commerce  with  the  British  West  Indies 
only  continued  on  sufferance. 

Notwithstanding  its  unsatisfactory  character,  the  terms 
of  the  treaty  with  England  gave  great  offense  to  France. 
The  Directorate  declared  the  treaty  of  1778  at  an  end; 
damaging  restrictions  were  imposed  on  our  commerce  with 
the  French  West  Indies,  flour  and  salt  fish  —  our  stock  in 
trade  —  being  excluded,  and  it  was  decreed  that  hereafter 
French  men-of-war  and  privateers  would  "  treat  neutral 
vessels  either  as  to  confiscation,  as  to  searches  or  capture 
in  the  same  manner  as  they  shall  suffer  the  English  to 
treat  them."  The  American  government  found  itself 
involved  in  a  troublesome  controversy  with  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  new  Republic,  who  naturally  held  that 
France  was  entitled  to  some  return  service  for  the  aid  ren- 
dered the  United  States  in  the  closing  years  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  President  Washington  and  his  advisers  had 
much  ado  to  keep  French  sympathizers  in  the  United  States 
from  making  war  on  England,  the  common  antagonist. 

Legislation  in  Behalf  of  Manufactures.  —  The  various 
industries  set  on  foot  during  the  war  when  there  was  little 
or  no  importation  and  domestic  goods  had  a  practical 
monopoly  of  the  home  market,  were  threatened  with  ruin 
now  that  the  Peace  had  opened  our  ports  to  the  commerce 
of  the  world.  English  manufacturers  had  an  accumulated 
stock  of  woolens,  cotton  cloth,  and  ironware  that  must  be 
disposed  of  even  at  a  loss.  They  were  ready  to  sell  their 
goods  at  25  per  cent  below  London  prices  in  order  to  recover 
their  American  custom.  European  merchants  also  were 
eager  to  gain  admission  to  the  promising  market  hitherto 
monopolized  by  Great  Britain.  Ships  bearing  sail  duck 
and  linen  from  Holland  and  Russia,  muslins,  nankeens. 


National  Beginnings 


141 


and  silks  from  India  and   China,   thronged  our  ports. 
Ihey  found  eager  purchasers,  for  wealthy  Americans  had 
had  enough  of  homespun  and  seized  their  first  chance 
to   buy  finer  stuffs      In   the  year   following  the  Peace,   Pitkin. 
^1^397,335  worth  of  goods  was  brought  into  the  country    Statistical 
and  but  $3,746,725  was  exported  in  exchange.     By  1700  ^'^'^' 
we  had  accumulated  an  unfavorable  balance  of  trade  to  '°' 
the  amount  of  $53,992,655.     The  discrepancy  had  to  be 
made  good  in  gold  and  silver,  commodities  that  could 
not  well  be  spared.     American  manufacturers  protested 
that,  handicapped  as  they  were  by  high-priced  labor  and 
lack  of  machinery,  they  could  not  compete  in  an  open 
market  with  the  products  of  English  factories  and  Oriental 
looms,  and  they  begged  for  protecdon.     A  petition  ad- 
dressed to  Congress  by  the  tradesmen  and  manufacturers 
of  the  town  of  Baltimore  represented  the  sentiment  of  the 
manufacturing  sections  of  the  country.     '^  Since  the  close  Annals  of 
ot  the  late  war,  and  the  completion  of  the  Revolution    Congress, 
they  have  observed  with  serious  regret  the  manufacturing  f??;'''^' 
and  the  trading  interest  of  the  country  rapidly  declining  ' 

and  the  attempts  of  the  State  Legislatures  to  remedy  the 
evil  failing  of  their  object ;  that,  in  the  present  melancholy 
state  of  our  country,  the  number  of  poor  increasing  for 
want  of  employment,  foreign  debts  accumulating,  houses 
and  lands  depreciating  in  value,  and  trade  and  manu- 
factures languishing  and  expiring,  they  look  up  to  the 
Supreme  Legislature  of  the  United  States  as  the  guardian 
of  the  whole  empire,  and  from  their  united  wisdom  and 
patriotism,  and  ardent  love  of  their  country,  expect  to 
derive  that  aid  and  assistance  which  alone  can  dissipate 
their  just  apprehensions,  and  animate  them  with  hopes 
of  success  in  future,  by  imposing  on  aU  foreign  articles 
which  can  be  made  in  America,  such  duties  as  will  give 
a  just  and  decided  preference  to  their  labors ;  discounte- 
nancing that  trade  which  tends  so  materially  to  injure  them 
and  impoverish  their  country ;    measures  which   in  their 
consequences,  may  also  contribute  to  the  discharge  of  the 
national  debt  and  the  due  support  of  the  Government  " 


I 


PI 


Annals  of 

Congress, 

1789-1791, 

I,  102,  168, 

192-231, 

291-317, 

324-336. 

Stan  wood, 
Am.  Tariff 
Controver- 
sies, I,  Ch. 
III. 


Bishop, 
I,  250-262. 


Bishop, 
I,  195-208. 


142      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  levying  of  customs  duties,  not  merely  for  revenue, 
but  for  the  protection  of  home  manufactures,  was  fully 
debated  in  the  first  session  of  the  Federal  Congress.     In 
the  very  able  tariff  debate  of  1789,  the  interests  of  the 
several  sections  of  the  coxmtry  were  clearly  brought  out. 
The   delegates   from   the   manufacturing   states  —  Penn- 
sylvania, New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  — 
suggested  that  the  opportunity  be  utilized  to  "  protect  our 
infant   manufactures  "   against   the   competition  of  low- 
priced  foreign  goods.     They  urged  that  duties  should  be 
so  laid  as  to  advance  the  price  of  the  competing  imjjort 
to  the  point  at  which  the  domestic  product  could  sell  with 
profit.    The  agricultural  states  were,  in  general,  opi:>()sed 
to  import  duties,  since  they  were  accustomed  to  rely  upon 
foreign    manufactures,    and    the    enhanced    price    would 
amount  to  a  tax  on  consumption.     Each  delegate  ad- 
vocated protection  for  the  products  of  his  own  state,  but 
deprecated  the  duties  on  commodities  purchased  by  his 
constituency.     For  example,  Fitzsimons  of  Pennsylvania 
proposed  protection  for  the  steel  industry  recently  estab- 
lished in  that  state,  but  Tucker  of  South  Carolina  prot  ested 
that  "  the  smallest  tax  on  steel  would  be  a  burden  on 
agriculture."     A  compromise  of  these  interests  was  ef- 
fected at  fifty-six  cents  a  hundredweight.     Fitzsimons  ad- 
vocated a  duty  on  beer,  representing  that  the  brewing  in- 
dustry, both  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  was  one 
"  highly    deserving    of    encouragement."     Malt    hquors 
were,  he  argued,  less  intoxicating  than  rum,  and  as  an 
element  of  diet  were  far  preferable.     This   consideration, 
together  with  the  indirect  advantage  that   would   accrue 
to  the  growers  of  hops  and  barley,  induced  Congress  to 
impose  a  duty  of  five  cents  a  gallon  on  ale  and  beer.     Penn- 
sylvania's delegates  further  desired   protection  for    her 
paper  manufactures,  arguing  that  the  capacity  of  the  mills 
established  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  revolutionary  press 
was  sufficient  to  supply  the  markets  of  this  and  the  neigh- 
boring states  with  the  coarser  grades  of  paper,  and  that  the 
industry  would  be  ruined  if  the  protection  accorded  by 


National  Beginnings 


143 


the  state  tariflf  was  now  withdrawn.    A  duty  of  7.5  per 
cent  ad  valorem  was  voted  without  debate.     The  chandlers 
of  Philadelphia  and  those  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  had  brought 
the  manufacture  of  wax,  spermaceti,  and  tallow  candles 
to  such  a  degree  of  perfection  that  they  expected  in  a  few 
years  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  the  western  hemisphere ; 
but  they  must  be  protected  against  wholesale  importa- 
tions from  Ireland  and  Russia.     It  was  urged  that  candles 
might  eventually  be  made  in  America  ''  cheaper  than  could 
be  imported  if  a  small  encouragement  was  held  out  to  them, 
since  the  raw  materials  were  to  be  had  in  abundance  " 
This  tax  on  light  was  protested  by  Tucker  in  the  interest 
of  consumers ;  nevertheless,  a  duty  of  two  cents  a  pound 
was  imposed  on  tallow  and  six  cents  on  wax  and  spermaceti 
candles      Carroll  of  Maryland  asked  for  and  secured  a  Bishop 
duty  of  ten  per  cent  on  glass  manufactures  in  the  behalf  I-  Ch.  x. 
of  works  recently  established  near  Frederick  town. 

The  manufacturing  interests  of  New  England  were  by 
no  means  neglected.     Connecticut  delegates  asked  that 
the  iron  works  of  Litchfield  County  should  be  secured 
m  their  hold  on  the  home  market,  and  a  duty  of  7.5  per 
cent  was  accordingly  laid  on  ship's  anchors.     Fisher  Ames 
of  Massachusetts  asked  for  a  protective  duty  on  nails. 
This,  he  argued,  was  a  domestic  industry,  requiring  small 
capital  and  no  machinery,  and  employing  labor  that  would 
otherwise  be  wasted.     "  In  winter,  and  on  evenings  when  Annals  of 
httle  other  work  is  done,  great  quantities  of  nails  are  made  Congress, 
even  by  the  children;    perhaps  enough  might  be  manu-  Tx^''^'' 
factured  m  this  way  to  supply  the  continent,"  since  ''  the 
business  could  be  prosecuted  in  a  similar  manner  in  every 
state   exerting   equal   industry."     Madison   and   Tucker 
protested  in  the  interest  of  the  men  who  were  building 
houses  and  ships,  but  a  duty  of  a  cent  a  pound  was  granted. 
The  manufacturers  of  beaver  hats  in  Boston,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia  had  greatly  profited  by  the  removal  of 
the  British  restrictions  on  exportation  and  the  monopoly 
of  the  home  market  consequent  on  the  war.    They  were 
now  accorded  a  protective  duty  of  7.5  per  cent,  lest  the 


<i — r 


Bishop, 
I,  497-408. 


Bishop, 
I,  450-464- 


ki 


144      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

business  be  injured  by  the  cheaper  felt  hats  imported  ftom 
England.  The  manufacture  of  wool  cards  had  come  to  be 
an  industry  of  importance  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston, 
because  of  a  labor-saving  machine  that  reduced  by  half 
the  number  of  workingmen  required  to  bend  the  win?,  and 
a  duty  of  fifty  cents  per  dozen,  amounting  to  7.5  per  cent 
ad  valorem,  was  accorded  them.  Protective  duties  were 
also  laid  on  boots  and  shoes  and  galoshes.  Leather  manu- 
factures were  in  a  flourishing  state  because  raw  material 
in  the  shape  of  hides,  bark  for  tanning,  and  oil  for  dressing 
was  abundant  and  cheap,  and  no  machinery  was  required. 
The  business  was  carried  on  in  the  shop  of  the  master 
craftsman  with  the  assistance  of  half  a  dozen  apprentices 
and  journeymen.  The  war  demand,  coupled  with  the 
exclusion  of  foreign  goods,  had  given  a  marked  impulse 
to  this  industry.  Lynn  boasted  two  hundred  master 
craftsmen  and  six  hundred  other  workmen,  and  was  ex- 
porting from  one  to  three  hundred  thousand  shoes  per  year. 
The  leather  industry  centered  then,  as  now,  in  the  maritime 
counties  of  Massachusetts,  but  it  had  developed  to  con- 
siderable proportions  in  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, New  Jersey,  and  Maryland.  Farther  south  where 
hides  were  tanned  for  exportation  and  nothing  but  the 
coarsest  shoes  for  field  laborers  were  made  up  on  the  planta- 
tions, the  tax  on  fine  wear  was  felt  to  be  a  burden. 

The  interests  of  the  Yankee  farmers  were  considered  in 
the  laying  of  import  duties  on  cheese  and  cider,  though  the 
proposition  to  levy  customs  charges  on  salt  beef,  pork,  and 
butter  was  rejected  on  the  ground  that  since  we  produced 
already  more  of  these  articles  than  we  could  consume  and 
none  was  imported,  such  duties  would  be  useless.  Duties 
on  nails,  boots  and  shoes,  ready-made  clothing,  etc. ,  gave 
welcome  protection  to  the  by-industries  of  the  farmhouse. 
Yankee  fishermen  were  protected  against  the  competition 
of  their  Canadian  rivals  by  a  duty  of  fifty  cents  a  quintal 
on  dried,  and  seventy-five  cents  a  barrel  on  pickled,  fish. 
South  CaroHna  delegates  were  quite  ready  to  accept  pro- 
tection in  the  shape  of  a  duty  of  sixteen  cents  a  pound  on 


National  Beginnings 


145 


mdigo,  and  were  reconciled  to  the  duty  on  candles  because 
beeswax  was  a  product  of  that  state.     A  duty  on  hemp  was 
urged  m  the  interests  of  the  farmers  of  the  Ohio  Valley 
where  thousands  of  acres  of  native  hemp  were  seeking  a 
niarket,  but  this  tax  of  sixty  cents  a  hundredweight  on 
their  raw  material  was  protested  by  the  cordage  manu- 
tacturers.     Since  the  home-grown  hemp  could  not  supply 
the  ropewalks  of  New  England,  and  half  the  amount 
needed  was  being  imported  from  the  Baltic,  the  manu- 
facturers protested  that  the  prosperity  of  the  cordage  in- 
dustry would  be  jeopardized  unless  a  compensating  duty 
was  levied  on  imported  goods.     The  New  England  repre- 
sentatives secured  a  duty  of  seventy-five  cents  a  hundred- 
weight on  tarred  and  ninety  cents  on  untarred  rope,  and 
two  dollars  a  hundredweight  on  pack  thread.     Both  duties 
were  denounced  by  the  shipping  interest  of  Massachusetts 
on  the  ground  that  a  rise  in  the  price  of  cordage  would 
enhance  the  cost  of  ships,  and  by  the  merchants  of  South 
Carolma  because  more  costly  ships  would  mean  higher 
freight  rates.  ^ 

The  conflict  of  interest  between  producer  and  consumer 
between  the  producer  of  the  raw  material  and  the  producer 
of  the  finished  article,  gave  rise  to  protracted  controversies 
among  the  representatives  of  rival  industries.     A  duty  of  Annals  of 
two  cents  a  bushel  was  laid  on  coal  in  behalf  of  the  mines  Congress, 
recently  opened  near   Richmond,   Virginia.     They   were  J^^^-^^qi. 
capable    it  was  believed,  of  supplying  the  whole  of  the  t-'^x.'"' 
United  States  if  their  owners  might  be  protected  against  ^^^-335. 
the  competing  product  brought  over  from  England  as 
ballast,  but  this  duty  was  protested  as  a  tax  on  fuel  by 
the  manufacturers  of  Pennsylvania.     The  rich  deposits 
ot  their  own  state  had  not  yet  been  discovered.     \  duty 
of  ten  cents  a  bushel  was  laid  on  salt,  primarily  for  revenue 
though  It  gave  incidental  protection  to  the  nascent  salt 
works  of  New  Bedford  and  Syracuse.     We  had  imported 
from  Europe  and  the  West  Indies,  in  1769,  more  than  a 
million  bushels,  at  a  cost  of  one  shilling  a  bushel      The 
duty  nearly  doubled  the  price,  and  the  tax  was  energetically 


Hi 


fii 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
I7gi-i793, 
971-1034. 


146      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

opposed  by  the  spokesmen  of  the  New  England  fisheries. 
The  cattlemen  of  the  "  back  country  "  of  the  Carolinas 
and  the  pioneer  farmers  beyond  the  mountains  were  also 
large  consumers  of  salt  and  could  ill  afford  any  addition 
to  the  already  heavy  cost  of  this  necessity.  The  duty  of 
fifteen  cents  a  gallon  on  Jamaica  rum  was  hotly  contested 
by  a  Georgia  delegate,  not  only  because  his  constituents 
were  of  the  consumers  of  this  beverage,  but  because  rum 
was  an  essential  factor  in  their  lumber  trade  with  the 
West  Indies.  This  growing  commerce  would  be  jeopardized 
if  the  principal  return  cargo  was  subjected  to  so  heavy 
a  duty.  When  the  rate  was  lowered  to  ten  cents,  the  New 
England  representatives  urged  that  the  tax  of  eight,  cents 
a  gallon  on  molasses  be  reduced  in  proportion,  arguing  that 
molasses  was  not  only  the  raw  material  of  the  distilleries, 
but  an  article  of  general  consumption,  especially  among 
the  poor,  and  that  it  was  an  indispensable  factor  in  New 
England's  West  India  trade.  The  strenuous  endeavors 
of  Fisher  Ames  and  his  colleagues  finally  secured  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  duty  on  molasses  to  two  and  one  half  cents 
a  gallon,  with  a  drawback  in  case  the  rum  was  exported 
for  sale.  Other  raw  materials,  such  as  barley,  dyestuffs 
(except  indigo),  undressed  hides,  furs,  and  all  the  metals, 
were  admitted  free  of  duty.  The  loss  to  the  government 
in  the  way  of  potential  revenue  was  considerable,  but  it 
was  evidently  unwise  to  levy  taxes  on  imports  so  greatly 
needed  by  manufacturers.  Increasing  returns  were  realized, 
however,  from  the  purely  revenue  duties  levied  on  coffee, 
tea,  sugar,  wines,  and  other  luxuries  and  from  the  five  per 
cent  ad  valorem  duty  imposed  on  all  non-enumerated  im- 
ports. The  customs  receipts  ($4,000,000  in  1791)  were 
soon  adequate  to  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  government. 
Hamilton's  Report  on  Manufacturers.  —  In  1791  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  submitted  to 
the  House  of  Representatives  a  report  on  the  status  of 
manufactures,  in  which  the  contemporary  argument  for 
protection  was  clearly  set  forth.  According  to  this  great 
financier,  industrial  conditions  fully  justified  the  levying 


National  Beginnings 


147 


of  customs  duties,  not  merely  for  revenue,  but  for  the  sake 
of  defending  our  infant  manufactures  against  the  com- 
petition of  countries  better  equipped  for  the  production 
of   these   goods.    American    manufacturers   were   handi- 
capped by  scarcity  of  labor  and  capital.     They  must  pay 
higher  wages  and  higher  interest  rates  than  their  English 
rivals,  and  they  had  not  as  yet  secured  textile  machinery. 
These  disadvantages  would  soon  be  overcome  if  adequate 
encouragement  were  held  out  to  adventurers  in  this  line 
of   business.     For  high-cost  labor  would  be  substituted 
labor-saving  machinery  and  operatives  of  a  cheaper  grade 
could  be  utilized,  e.g.  "  Women  and  children  are  rendered 
more  useful,  and  the  latter  more  easily  useful,  by  manufac- 
turing establishments,  than  they  would  otherwise  be.     Of 
the  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  cotton  manufactories 
of  Great  Britain,  it  is  computed  that  four  sevenths,  nearly, 
are  women  and  children ;  of  whom  the  greatest  proportion 
are  children  and  many  of  them  of  a  tender  age."     The 
report  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  emigration  from 
the  Old  World  was  bringing  crowds  of  artisans  to  our  ports, 
seeking  employment  in  a  country  where  wages  were  high 
and  the  cost  of  living  low ;   thus  the  deficiency  in  supply 
would  soon  be  made  good.     Capital,  too,  would  be  attracted 
from  abroad  by  the  promising  opportunities  for  invest- 
ment here  offered. 

Hamilton  recommended  the  protection  of  textile  manu- 
factures, metal  and  glass  works,  sugar  refineries,  together 
with  all  the  finished  products  from  leather,  wood,  and 
cereals,  but  not  in  the  interest  of  the  manufacturers  alone. 
Our  merchants  might  be  compensated  for  their  losses  in 
transatlantic  commerce  by  the  development  of  domestic 
trade  and  the  raw  materials  of  the  Southern  would  be  ex- 
changed for  the  manufactures  of  the  Northern  states, 
to  the  mutual  advantage  of  both  sections.  Our  farmers 
and  planters  and  lumbermen  who  were  finding  the  foreign 
market  for  their  products  increasingly  precarious  would 
soon  realize  the  advantage  of  a  home  market  in  the  manu- 
facturing towns,  with   their  growing  demand  for  food- 


Rabbeno, 
287-324. 

Taussig, 
State  Papers 
and  Speeches 
on  the 
Tariff, 
1-107. 

Stanwood, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 


Hamilton's 
Works, 
IV,  70-198. 

Annals  of 
Congress, 

1 791-1793, 
982. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
I 791-1793. 

I00I-I002. 


Rabbeno, 

134-145. 

Dewey, 

80-84. 


^1 


II 


148      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

stuffs  and  raw  materials.  Consumers  would  be  obliged 
to  pay  higher  prices  for  the  protected  commodities  during 
the  initial  years  of  this  policy,  but  the  burden  would  be 
fully  offset  by  ultimate  gains.  Prices  would  eventually 
fall  under  the  operation  of  domestic  competition,  to  a  point 
lower  than  that  at  which  the  foreign  commodity,  subject 
to  heavy  freight  rates,  could  be  furnished  to  the  American 
market.  ''  When  a  domestic  manufacture  has  attained 
to  perfection,  and  has  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  it 
a  competent  number  of  persons,  it  invariably  becomes 
cheaper.  Being  free  from  the  heavy  charges  which  attend 
the  importation  of  foreign  commodities,  it  can  be  afforded, 
and  accordingly  seldom  or  never  fails  to  be  sold  cheaper, 
in  process  of  time,  than  was  the  foreign  article  for  which 
it  is  a  substitute.  The  internal  competition  which  takes 
place  soon  does  away  with  everything  like  monopoly, 
and  by  degrees  reduces  the  price  of  the  article  to  the  mini- 
mum of  a  reasonable  profit  on  the  capital  emi)loyed. 
This  accords  with  the  reason  of  the  thing  and  with  ex- 
perience/' According  to  Hamilton,  the  United  States 
could  not  afford  to  remain  an  agricultural  community, 
dependent  on  foreigners  for  the  purchase  of  supplies  and 
the  disposal  of  surplus  products.  National  self-sufficiency 
was  essential  to  national  independence,  and  every  class 
and  section  must  benefit  in  the  end  by  the  promotion  of 
an  all-round  industrial  development. 

The  tariff  legislation  of  the  years  immediately  following 
was  quite  in  the  spirit  of  Hamilton's  recommendations. 
There  was  a  steady  increase  of  duties  on  manufactured 
articles,  the  usual  rate  of  1789  being  7.5  per  cent,  that  of 
1792  being  10  per  cent,  that  of  1795,  15  per  cent.  Raw 
materials,  with  the  exception  of  indigo,  hemp,  and  molasses, 
were  left  free  from  taxation.  The  list  of  revenue  duties 
was  increased,  articles  of  luxury,  such  as  lemons,  oranges, 
olives,  spices,  raisins,  and  wines,  being  selected  to  supply 
the  government  income. 

The  Patent  Law.  —  Among  the  early  enactments  in- 
tended  to   promote   the   industrial   development   of   the 


National  Beginnings 


149 


country,  none  was  wiser  or  more  timely  than  the  patent 
law.  The  Act  of  1790  secured  to  the  inventor  of  "any 
useful  art,  manufacture,  engine,  machine,  or  device,  or  any 


Fitch's  Second  Boat 


improvement  therein  not  before  known  or  used,"  exclusive 
monopoly  of  the  sale  of  such  patent  for  a  term  not  exceed- 
ing fourteen  years.     Under  this  guarantee  of  the  benefits 


Fitch's  Third  Boat 


accruing  from  ^ a  successful  process,  inventive  genius  re- 
ceived a  notable  stimulus.  One  of  the  first  to  apply  for 
a  patent  monopoly  was  John  Fitch,  the  designer  of  a  steam 
engine  adapted  to  the  propelling  of  a  boat.     The  petitioner 


U.S.  Census, 
1880,  IV. 
Report  on 
Steam 
Navigation 
in  U.S., 
1-4. 


Bris.sot  (le 

Warvillc, 

235-237- 


I 


I 


Hammond. 
Cotton  Cul- 
ture and  Cot- 
ton Trade, 
Cn.  I. 

Bishop, 
I.  252-356. 


150      Industrial  History  of  the   United  State:^ 

"  trusts  no  interference  with  him  in  propelling  boats  by 
steam,  under  any  pretence  of  a  different  mode  of  appli- 
cation, will  be  permitted;  for  should  that  be  the  case, 
the  employment  of  his  time,  and  the  amazing  expense 
attending  the  perfecting  of  his  scheme,  would,  whilst  they 
gave  the  world  a  valuable  discovery,  and  to  America 
pecuUar  and  important  advantages,  eventuate  in  the 
total  ruin  of  your  petitioner ;  for  a  thousand  different 
modes  may  be  appUed  by  subsequent  navigators,  all  of 
them  benefiting  by  the  expense  and  persevering  labor  of 
your  petitioner,  and  thus  sharing  with  him  those  j)rofits, 
which  they  never  earned."  He  prays,  therefore,  that  he 
may  be  granted  an  "  exclusive  right  to  the  use  of  steam 
navigation  for  a  limited  time."  Fitch  anticipated  that 
his  invention  would  greatly  benefit  the  trans-Alkghany 
territory.  "  The  western  waters  of  the  United  States, 
which  have  hitherto  been  navigated  with  difficulty  and 
expense,  may  now  be  ascended  with  safety,  conveniency, 
and  great  velocity ;  consequently,  by  these  means,  an  im- 
mediate increased  value  will  be  given  to  the  western  terri- 
tory ;  all  the  internal  waters  of  the  United  States  will  be 
rendered  much  more  convenient  and  safe,  and  the  carriage 
on  them  much  more  expeditious ;  that  from  these  ad- 
vantages will  result  a  great  saving  in  the  labor  of  men  and 
horses,  as  well  as  expense  to  the  traveler."  The  patent 
was  allowed,  and  Fitch's  steamboat,  propelled  by  paddles, 
made  her  first  voyage  on  the  Delaware  m  1787.  Regular 
trips  were  made  from  Philadelphia  to  Trenton,  Wilmington, 
Gray's  Ferry,  and  return  for  the  four  summer  months  of 
1790,  but  the  experiment  was  soon  abandoned. 

A  more  immediately  successful  invention  was  EU  Whit- 
ney's saw  gin  for  removing  seeds  from  the  cotton  boll, 
patented  in  1793.  The  East  Indian  method  of  extracting 
the  seeds  by  hand  or  by  roller  mill  had  been  in  use.  By 
the  new  process  the  cotton  was  dragged  through  a  wire 
screen  by  means  of  toothed  cylinders  revolving  toward 
each  other,  and  the  seeds  thus  sei.arated  from  the  lint. 
A  slave  could  clean  by  hand  roller  only  five  or  six  pounds  of 


Cleaning  Coiton  with  Roller  Gin 


National  Beginnings 


iSi 


i 


il 


I 


I 


/ 


Washington, 
XI.  3S8. 


cotton  in  a  day,  the  mill  turned  out  but  sixty-five  pounds ; 
while  the  new  machine,  when  run  by  horse  power,  ginned 
from  three  hundred  to  one  thousand  pounds  of  cotton  per 
day.  Hitherto,  the  native  short-fiber  cotton  had  sufiiced 
for  the  plantation  industries  of  the  Southern  states,  but 
the  Northern  cotton  manufacturers  had  imported  the  long 
staple  variety  from  India,  Brazil,  and  the  West  Indies.  In 
1786  some  experiments  were  made  in  the  growing  of  West  writings  of 
India  cotton  in  the  sea  islands  off  the  coast  of  South  Car-  ,9f°l^.^ 
olina  and  Georgia,  and 
three  casks  of  this  cotton 
were  sent  to  London  and 
sold  for  45.  (id.  per  pound. 
Under  the  stimulus  of  a 
protective  duty  of  three 
cents  a  pound,  laid  in 
1790,  more  cotton  seed 
was  planted  and  the  crop 
of  1 79 1  amounted  to  nine 
thousand  bales.  The  cot- 
ton gin  rendered  practi- 
cable the  cleaning  of  the 

short-fiber  cotton  which  could  be  grown  in  the  hill  coun- 
try. Thousands  of  acres  were  soon  brought  under  cotton 
culture,  and  the  South  had  a  new  staple  crop  of  transcen- 
dent importance.  In  1792  the  Southern  states  sent  630 
bales  of  cotton  wool  to  England ;  the  year  following  the 
introduction  of  the  cotton  gin,  7000  bales  were  exported ; 
by  1800  the  amount  was  79,000  bales. 

Other  inventors  proposing  labor-saving  machinery  for 
agricultural  processes  secured  protection  under  the  patent 
law.  A  machine  for  the  threshing  of  grain  was  patented 
in  1799,  and  another  for  cutting  grain  in  1803.  A  plow 
with  a  mold  board  of  iron  cast  all  in  one  piece  was  patented 
in  1797.  But  the  farmers  were  slow  to  adopt  new-fangled 
notions,  and,  spite  of  the  high  cost  of  labor,  continued  to 
use  the  wooden  plow  clumsily  plated  with  wrought  iron. 
They  sowed  their  grain  by  hand,  cut  it  with  sickle  or 


Whitney's  Cotton  Gin 


' 


14  Geo.  Ill, 
c.  71. 

21  Geo.  Ill, 
car- 
White, 
Memoir  of 
Slater, 

Ch.  I,  II,  III, 
VI,  X. 


Wright, 
Indust.  Evol. 
of  U.S.. 
Ch.  X. 


II 


152      Industnal  History  of  the  United  States 

cradle  scythe,  and  threshed  it  out  with  flail  and  winnowing 
sieve. 

The  cloth  workers  showed  more  enterprise.  Strenuous 
efforts  were  being  made  to  procure  the  textile  machinery 
which  the  British  government  was  jealously  guarding  lest 
England  lose  her  recently  acquired  supremacy  in  cotton 
manufactures.  The  Beverley  Company,  in  a  petition  for 
aid  from  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  (1790), 
set  forth  the  difficulties  of  the  situation:  "The  extraor- 
dinary price  of  machines  unknown  to  our  mechanics, 
intricate  and  difficult  in  their  construction,  without  any 
model  in  the  country,  and  only  to  be  effected  by  repeated 
trials,  and  long  attention;  one  instance  among  many  of 
the  kind  is  a  carding  machine,  which  cost  the  proprietors 
$1100,  and  which  can  now  be  purchased  for  $200.  The 
extraordinary  loss  of  materials  in  the  instruction  of  their 
servants  and  workmen,  while  so  many  are  new,  and  the 
additional  losses  sustained  by  the  desertion  of  these,  when 
partly  informed,  and  by  the  increase  of  wages  to  prevent 
it,  in  consequence  of  the  competition  of  rival  manufactories. 
The  present  want  of  that  perfection  and  beauty  in  their 
goods,  which  long-estabUshed  manufactories  can  exhibit, 
from  the  skill  of  their  workmen,  but  principally  from  the 
use  of  machines  which  your  petitioners  have  as  yet  found 
too  expensive  for  them  to  procure."  A  few  spinning 
jennies  and  stocking  looms  had  been  brought  over,  spite 
of  the  vigilance  of  the  British  customs  officials.  A  spin- 
ning frame  to  be  operated  by  a  crank  turned  by  hand  and 
carrying  thirty-two  spindles  was  set  up  in  Providence  in 
1788,  but  the  machine  was  too  heavy  to  run  by  hand, 
and  the  attempt  to  adapt  it  to  water  power  was  unsuccess- 
ful. Tench  Coxe,  a  Philadelphia  manufacturer,  had  con- 
tracted with  an  English  firm  for  a  full  set  of  Arkwright 
machinery,  but  the  contraband  models  were  seized  and 
confiscated  by  the  customs  officers.  However,  a  few 
skilled  artisans  from  Scotland  and  Ireland  had  succeeded 
in  evading  detection  and  emigrated  to  the  United  States. 
In  1790  one  Samuel  Slater,  who  had  been  employed  in  the 


Stocking  Loom  \\'ea\  kr 


II 


I 


1 


National  Beginnings 


153 


Arkwright  factory,  attracted  by  an  advertisement  of  the  Bagnall, 
Philadelphia    Society  of  Artists  and  Manufacturers  for  ^'  C^-  VI. 
a  machine  to  make  cotton  rollers,  determined  to  venture  White, 
his  fortunes  in  America.     On  arriving  he  entered  into  a  Memoir  of 
contract  with  Moses  Brown  of  Providence  to  build  and  ck  i-iv 
operate  a  complete  spinning  mill,  with  carding,  roving, 
and  spinning  machines,  at  the  falls  of  the  Pawtucket  River. 


Spinning  Room  in  Slater's  Mill 

Slater  had  not  dared  to  bring  with  him  any  models  of  the  Montgomery. 
English  machines.     He  was  obliged  to  draw  the  plans    ^'■^^^•^^1 
(hrect  the  mechanics  who  fashioned  the  parts,  supervise  ^o^l^^ 
the  construction  of  the  factory  and  the  regulation  of  the  Manufac- 
water  power,  and,  finally,  instruct  the  workmen   how  to  ^"'■^' 
operate  the  machinery.     The  Pawtucket  mill  was  a  success  '^'■'^'* 
from  the  start,  and  thus  Samuel  Slater  inaugurated  a  new 
mdustry,  one  destined  to  absorb  much  of  the  capital  and 
entrepreneur  ability  of  New  England.     The  water  frame 
was  patented  in  1791,  and  other  improvements  and  in- 
ventions followed  in  quick  succession.     American   manu- 


1 54      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


\ 


% 


BoUes, 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U 
II,  Bk.  I, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Dewey, 
98-105. 

Brissot  de 
Warville, 

145-149, 
176-178. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
1789-1791, 
II,  2112- 
2141. 

Hamilton's 
Works, 
I.  275-325. 


facturers  were  so   enterprising,   and  American    laborers 
proved  so  intelligent,  that  the  original  disadvantages  were 
rapidly  overcome,  and  the  manufacture  of  cotton  cloth  of 
the  coarser  grades  was  soon  established  on  a  firm  basis 
Regulation  of  the  Currency.  —  There  could  be  no  real 
g^   industrial  prosperity  without  an  adequate  supply  of  money, 
and  the  attention  of  Congress  was  early  called  to  th(>  neces-^ 
sity  of  providing  a  medium  of  exchange  that  should  have 
stable  and  uniform  value.     The  bills  of  credit,  thoroughly 
discredited  by  the  close  of  the  war,  had  dropped  out  of 
circulation,  and  the  supply  of  metal  money  was  insufficient 
to  effect  business  exchanges  even  at  the  trade  centers. 
The  specie  brought  in  during  the  war  was  of  varying  stand- 
ards and  denominations.     English  shillings  and  sovereigns 
French  crowns,  Spanish  reals  and  jneces  of  eight,  passed 
current,  to  the  endless  confusion  of  traffic  ;  but  the  reviving 
trade  with  Havana  brought  in  considerable  silver,  and  the 
Spanish   dollar   was   the  coin   most   frequently  handled. 
This  came,  by  consequence,  to  be  the  unit  of  value  in  most 
general  use,   and  by   1790  had  superseded  the  English 
denominations. 

When  Hamilton,  the  financier  of  Washington's  cabinet 
was  called  upon  to  submit  to  Congress  plans  for  a  new 
comage  system,  he  suggested  the  dollar  as  the  most  con- 
vement  money  unit,  since  it  was  familiar  and  popular. 
He  recommended  that  both  gold  and  sUver  be  declared 
legal  tender  in  exchange,  since,  though  gold  was  the  more 
stable  metal,  the  supply  was  insufficient  to  provide  the 
needed  volume.    The  Coinage  Act  of  1792  established  a 
bimetallic  currency,  both  metals  being  coined  freely  at  the 
mint  in  the  ratio  of  fifteen  to  one.     The  silver  dollar  was 
to  contain  371.25  grains  of  pure  silver,  while  24.75  grains 
of  pure  gold  went  to  the  making  of  a  gold  dollar.     The 
latter  denomination  was  actually  coined  only  in  multiples, 
i.e.  eagles,  half  eagles,  and  quarter  eagles.     For  fractional 
currency,  the  decimal  system,  suggested  by  Jefferson,  was 
adopted,  the  smaller  denominations  being  coined  in  copper. 
The  avaHable  supply  of  metals,  gold,  silver,  and  copper, 


National  Bczinnins^s 


155 


was  so  far  short  of  the  money  need  of  the  country  that  a 
paper  substitute  was  a  physical  necessity.     The  power  to 
"  emit  bills  of  credit  and  make  them  legal  tender  in  pay- 
ment of  debt  "  was  not  conceded  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment by  the  Constitution,  a  clause  conferring  such  author- 
ity having  failed  to  pass  in  the  Constitutional  Convention 
by  a  vote  of  nine  states  to  two.     Bank  notes  issued  with 
sufficient  guarantee  of   redemption   might,   however,   be 
made  to  serve  the  purpose.     Hamilton  proposed  that  the 
Federal  government  meet  the  actual  currency  needs  of  the 
country  by  establishing  a  national  bank  authorized  to  issue 
a  credit  money  on    safe    business   principles.     The    sol- 
vency of  the  bank  was  to  be  maintained  by  the  subscrip- 
tion of  four  fifths  of  its  $10,000,000  capital  in  government 
bonds  paying  6  per  cent  interest,  and  redemption  of  the 
notes  was  limited  to  this  readily  convertible  stock.     The 
most  successful  model  for  such  a  credit  money  was  the 
Bank  of  England,  but  the  method  had  been  successfully 
tried  by  the  bank  of  North  America  in  Philadelphia,  the 
bank  of  New  York  in  that  city,  and  the  Massachusetts 
bank  of  Boston.     The  business  advantages  of  a  national  as 
compared  with  a  state  bank  were  emphasized  in  Hamilton's 
report.     The  sale  of  bonds  would  afford  a  safe  investment 
for  idle  capital,  the  property  of  women,  minors,  etc.,  the 
country  over ;  out  of  the  accumulation  of  small  capitals, 
the  bank  could  make  loans  to  business  men,  thus  enabling 
them  to  set  upon  enterprises  otherwise  impossible;   the 
notes  might  not,  as  the  Constitution  was  then  interpreted, 
be  given  legal  tender  value,  but  being  redeemable  on  de- 
mand and  receivable  for  taxes  at  par,  they  would  serve 
all  the  purposes  of  specie.    The  national  bank  issue  would 
be  a  welcome  addition  to  the  volume  of  the  currency  and 
would,  Hamilton  believed,  ultimately  supersede  private 
bank  issues,  since  the  redemption  of  the  notes  was  assured 
by  government  bonds,  and  since  they  would  pass  current 
in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  facihtate  exchange  between 
distant  sections. 
The  Bank  of  the  United  States  was  chartered  in  1791. 


Belles,  ■ 
Financial 
Hist,  of  U.S. 
II,  Bk.  I. 
Ch.  VII. 

Hamilton's 
Works,  III. 
388-443- 

Annals  of 
Congress, 
1789-1791, 
II,  2082- 
2112. 


Conant, 
Modern 
Banks 
of  Issue, 
334-340. 


Holdsworth, 
First 
National 
Bank. 


I 


Turner, 
Rise  of  the 
New  West. 


156      Industrial  History  of  tlu  United  States 

The  stock  was  over-subscribed  by  four  thousand  shares 
within  two  hours  after  the  opening  of  the  books,  and  the 
bank  was  opened  for  business  in  December  of  that  year. 
The  results  were  all  that  Hamilton  had  anticipated.  The 
special  demand  for  government  bonds  brought  these  certifi- 
cates up  to  par  and  placed  the  credit  of  the  United  States 
on  an  assured  basis.  The  national  bank  notes,  being  read- 
ily convertible,  were  everywhere  received  as  equivalent 
to  specie,  and  the  issues  of  the  more  dubious  state  banks 
were  speedily  discredited.  The  success  of  this  great  finan- 
cial enterprise  once  guaranteed,  the  business  interests  of 
the  country  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  central  govern- 
ment, for  every  man  who  held  United  States  bonds  or 
dealt  in  national  bank  notes  was  concerned  to  maintain 
the  solvency  of  the  Federal  Treasury.  The  management 
of  the  bank  was  conservative  and  wise,  and  as  a  business 
enterprise  it  was  eminently  successful,  paying  8  per  cent 
dividends  from  the  start.  Nevertheless,  when,  in  1810 
and  1811,  the  proposition  to  recharter  the  National  Bank 
came  before  Congress,  there  was  general  opposition  on 
the  part  of  the  Democrats,  who  held  that  the  Federal 
government  had  no  consritutional  authority  to  establish 
such  an  institution.  The  partisans  of  the  state  banks, 
moreover,  denounced  the  national  bank  as  un-American, 
and  scorned  the  "  British  gold  "  that  had  been  attracted 
to  this  investment.  Gallatin,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
used  all  his  influence  in  behalf  of  the  bank,  declaring  that 
neither  the  government  nor  the  people  could  easily  dispense 
with  this  important  financial  agent;  but  in  vain.  The 
bill  to  recharter  failed  by  a  narrow  majority.  In  the  House 
the  vote  stood  sixty-five  to  sixty-four;  in  the  Senate  it 
was  defeated  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Vice-President. 

The  Westward  Movement 

The  first  decade  of  our  national  history  witnessed  a 
great  wave  of  migration  into  the  trans-AUeghany  territory. 
The  era  of  the  trapper  and  the  trader,  of  the  "  long  hunter  " 


National  Beginnings 


157 


and  the  self-appointed  Indian  fighter,  had  passed.  The 
experimental  stage  was  at  an  end,  and  now  that  some 
measure  of  peace  and  security  was  attained,  men  of  wealth 
and  breeding  began  to  move  into  Kentucky  and  Tennessee, 
taking  their  families  and  household  goods,  together  with 
slaves  and  capital  sufiicient  to  exploit  the  natural  resources 
of  the  country.  The  pioneer  farmer  gave  way  to  the 
planter,  and  tobacco  culture  and  stock  raising  on  a  large 
scale  superseded  the  primitive  industries  of  the  back 
woods.  Many  soldiers  of  the  disbanded  army,  finding 
it  impossible  to  regain  industrial  foothold  in  the  Atlantic 
states,  came  into  the  newly  acquired  territory  to  take  up 
their  bounty  lands  and  make  a  fresh  start  in  life ;  and 
emigrants  from  Ireland,  Great  Britain,  and  Germany 
crossed  the  sea  in  ever  increasing  numbers,  seeking  among 
the  people  that  had  broken  free  from  Old  Worid  trammels 
opportunity  to  earn  a  living  as  independent  farmers. 
Speculators,  too,  crossed  the  mountains,  bearing  titles 
more  or  less  valid  to  vast  tracts  of  virgin  forest,  hoping 
to  reap  fortunes  from  the  inevitable  rise  in  prfce.  Wash- 
ington had  protested  against  the  "  rage  for  speculating 
in  and  forestalling  of  land  on  the  No. West  of  the  Ohio," 
asserting  that  "  scarce  a  valuable  spot,  within  any  tolerable 
distance  of  it,  is  left  without  a  claimant.  Men  in  these 
times  talk  with  as  much  facility  of  fifty,  an  hundred,  and 
even  500,000  acres,  as  a  gentleman  formerly  would  do  of 
1000."  He  urged  that  Congress  should  "  fix  such  a  price 
upon  the  lands  ...  as  would  not  be  too  exorbitant  and 
burthensome  for  real  occupiers ;  but  high  enough  to  dis- 
courage monopolizers." 

The  Ordinance  of  1787.  —  The  settlement  of  the  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  River  was  undertaken  under  national 
auspices,  since  the  difficulties  were  too  great  to  be  mastered 
by  individual  enterprise.  The  Northwest  Territory  was 
occupied  by  powerful  Indian  tribes  resentful  of  invasion 
and  ever  ready  to  take  the  warpath,  while  British  garrisons 

A  ^  y^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^  °^  ^^^^  ^"^'  ~  Detroit,  Sandusky, 
and  Miami,  —  pending  the  adjudication  of  war  claims. 


Roosevelt, 
III,  Ch.  I, 
VI,  VIII. 

Winsor, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  XIII, 
XIV,  XVIII. 

McMaster, 
III,  Ch. 
XVI. 

Winter- 
botham, 
Hist.  View 
of  the  U.S., 
Ill,  281-339. 

Franklin's 
Works,  III, 
39^-409. 

Writings  of 
George 
Washington, 
X,  416-419. 

Michaux, 
Travels, 
222-250, 
276-282. 


Roosevelt, 
III,  Ch.  VI. 


Winsor, 
Westward 
Movement, 
Ch.  XIV, 

Sato, 
282-298. 


Hinsdale, 
Old  North- 
west, 
Ch.  XIV, 
XV,  XVIII, 
XIX. 


McLaughlin, 
Ch.  VII, 
VIII. 


Donaldson, 
Public 
Domain, 
Ch.VI. 

Webster, 
PoUtical 
Essays, 
485-500. 


Sato, 
335-378. 


Donaldson, 
Ch.  V. 


158      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Jurisdiction  of  the  territory  was  disputed  by  Virginia 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts' 
each  of  which  claimed  to  have  inherited  some  portion  from 
the  origmal  British  grants.  The  lands  were  unsurveyed 
and  the  form  of  government  undetermined,  and  the  soldiers 
who  had  received  grants  in  this  wilderness  thought  them 
about  as  valuable  as  "  quarter  sections  of  the  moon." 

The  bringing  order  out  of  this  chaos  was  the  last  work 
of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.     The  several  states 
were  induced  to  cede  their  unsubstantial  claims  to  the 
central  government ;  United  States  troops  were  sent  to 
hold  the  Indians  in  check,  and  peace  was  finally  concluded 
with  the  tribes  along  the  Scioto  (1784).     A  systematic 
survey  of  the  land  was  undertaken  in  the  following  year 
and  the  country  was  mapped  out  l)y  ranges  into  town- 
ships, sections,  and  quarter  sections.     The  section,  one 
mile  square,  and  containing  six  hundred  and  forty  acres 
became  the  typical  farm.     The  land  was  offered  to  in- 
dividual bidders  by  auction  sale  at  a  minimum  price  of 
$1  per  acre,  plus  a  smaU  charge  to  coxier  the  actual  cost  of 
survey.    In  1787  a  groupof  New  Engl  and  men,  two  hundred 
and  eighty-five  of  them  oflScers  of  the  Continental  army 
petitioned  Congress  to  determine  the  conditions  of  settle- 
ment in  that  part  of  the  Northwest  where  their  bounty 
lands    were    to    be    located.     Their    representative,    Dr 
Manasseh  Cutler,  submitted  the  conditions  that  the  would- 
be   settlers    held    essential:     political    and    civil    liberty 
religious  toleration,  and  the  prohibition  of  slavery     The 
Ordinance  of  1787  guaranteed  representative  govermnent 
to  the  people  who  should  inhabit  the  Northwest  Territory 
and  provided  for  the  ultimate  formation  therein  of  from 
three  to  five  states  that  should  be  coordinate  under  the 
Constitution   with   the   original    thirteen.     Thus   was   it 
settled  for  all  time  that  the  new  colonies  were  not  to  be 
exploited  for  the  benefit  of  the  parent  states,  but  were  to 
become    autonomous    and    coordinate    commonwealths, 
bchools  and  the  higher  education  were  to  be  maintained 
by  the  proceeds  of  land  sales,  one  section  in  every  to^n- 


Nattonal  Beginnings 


159 


INTENTIONAL  SECOND  EXPOSURE 


III 


I 

i 

I 


Hinsdale, 
Old  North- 
west, 
Ch.  XIV, 
XV,  XVIII, 
XIX. 


McLaughlin, 
Ch.  VII, 
VIII. 


Donaldson, 
Public 
Domain, 
Ch.  VI. 

Webster, 
Political 
Essays, 
485-500. 


Sato, 
335-378. 


Donaldson, 
Ch.  V. 


158      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

Jurisdiction  of  the  territory  was  disputed  by  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Connecticut,  and  Massachusetts] 
each  of  which  claimed  to  have  inherited  some  portion  frorn 
the  original  British  grants.  The  lands  were  unsur\'eyed 
and  the  form  of  government  undetermined,  and  the  soldiers 
who  had  received  grants  in  this  wilderness  thought  them 
about  as  valuable  as  "  quarter  sections  of  the  moon." 

The  bringing  order  out  of  this  chaos  was  the  last  work 
of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation.     The  several  states 
were  induced  to  cede  their  unsubstantial  claims  to  the 
central  government;   United  States   troops  were  sent  to 
hold  the  Indians  in  check,  and  peace  was  finally  concluded 
with  the  tribes  along  the  Scioto  (1784).     A  systematic 
survey  of  the  land  was  undertaken  in  the  following  year, 
and  the  country  was  mapped  out  l)y  ranges  into  town- 
ships, sections,   and  quarter  sections.     The  section,  one 
mile  square,  and  containing  six  huntlred  and  forty  acres, 
became  the  typical  farm.     The  land  was  offered  to  in- 
dividual bidders  by  auction  sale  at  a  minimum  price  of 
$1  per  acre,  plus  a  small  charge  to  co\  er  the  actual  cost  of 
survey.    In  1787  a  group  of  New  England  men,  two  hundred 
and  eighty-five  of  them  officers  of  the  Continental  army, 
petitioned  Congress  to  determine  the  conditions  of  settle- 
ment in  that  part  of  the  Northwest  where  their  bounty 
lands    were    to    be    located.     Their    representative.    Dr. 
Manasseh  Cutler,  submitted  the  conditions  that  the  would- 
be    settlers    held    essential:     political    and    civil    liberty, 
religious  toleration,  and  the  prohibition  of  slavery.     The 
Ordinance  of  1787  guaranteed  representative  governnnmt 
to  the  people  who  should  inhabit  the  N"orthwest  Territory, 
and  provided  for  the  ultimate  formation  therein  of  from 
three  to  five  states  that  should  be  coordinate  under  the 
Constitution    with   the   original    thirteen.     Thus   was   it 
settled  for  all  time  that  the  new  colonies  were  not  to  be 
exploited  for  the  benefit  of  the  parent  states,  but  were  to 
become    autonomous    and    coordinate    commonwealths. 
Schools  and  the  higher  education  were  to  be  maintained 
by  the  proceeds  of  land  sales,  one  section  in  every  town- 


^! 


National  Beginnings 


159 


92 


B7'       Longitude  b^      West  from    77  Greenwich        72 


SsTATE  CLAI3IS 
TO 

WESTERN'  LANDS 


SCALE   OF  MILES 
flaRMi^*^    100  200 


II 


McMaster, 
III,  521-528. 


m 


Roosevelt, 
in.  IS. 


Imlay, 
142-144. 


160      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

ship  being  reserved  for  its  public  school.  By  far  the  most 
important  clause  in  this  fundamental  compact  between 
the  original  states  and  the  settlers  of  the  territory  was  the 
stipulation  that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude, 
except  for  crime,  was  to  be  admitted  into  the  region. 
Persons  already  held  as  slaves  were  not  emancipated,  and 
fugitive  slaves  taking  refuge  in  the  territory  were  to  be 
restored  to  their  masters ;  but  slavery  as  a  labor  system 
was  forever  debarred. 

Immediately  after  the  passage  of  the  Ordinance,  the 
Ohio  Company  purchased  one  million  five  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum  River  and, 
in  New  England  fashion,  founded  a  town,  Marietta,  under 
the  guns  of  Fort  Harmar.  In  the  same  year  the  Miami 
Company,  under  direction  of  J.  C.  Symmes,  purchased 
one  million  acres  farther  down  the  Ohio,  and  there,  between 
the  Little  and  Great  Miami  rivers,  Cincinnati  was  built. 
Symmes's  settlers  were  also  soldiers,  but  they  came  from 
the  Middle  states.  During  the  latter  half  of  1787  more 
than  nine  hundred  boats  floated  dowii  the  Ohio,  carrying 
eighteen  thousand  men,  women,  and  children,  and  twelve 
thousand  horses,  sheep,  and  cattle,  and  six  hundred  and 
fifty  wagons.  The  westward  journey  was  no  longer 
difficult,  dangerous,  or  even  expensive.  An  experienced 
pioneer  thus  describes  the  trip  as  it  might  be  made  in  1793. 

"  Travellers  or  emigrants  take  different  methods  of 
transporting  their  baggage,  goods,  or  furniture,  from  the 
places  they  may  be  at  to  the  Ohio,  according  to  circum- 
stances, or  their  object  in  coming  tt)  the  country.  For 
instance,  if  a  man  is  travelling  only  for  curiosity,  or  has 
no  family  or  goods  to  remove,  his  best  way  would  be  to 
purchase  horses,  and  take  his  route  through  the  Wilderness ; 
but  provided  he  has  a  family,  or  goods  of  any  sort  to  re- 
move, his  best  way,  then,  would  be  to  purchase  a  waggon 
and  team  of  horses  to  carry  his  property  to  Redstone  Old 
Fort  or  to  Pittsburg,  according  as  he  may  come  from  the 
northern  or  southern  States.  A  good  waggon  will  cost, 
at  Philadelphia,  about  £10  (I  shall  reckon  everything  in 


National  Beginnings 


161 


sterling  money  for  your  greater  convenience),  and  the 
horses  about  £12  each;  they  would  cost  something  more 
both  at  Baltimore  and  Alexandria.  The  waggon  may  be 
covered  with  canvas,  and,  if  it  is  the  choice  of  the  people, 
they  may  sleep  in  it  at  nights  with  the  greatest  safety. 
But  if  they  should  dislike  that,  there  are  inns  of  accommo- 


dation the  whole  distance  on  the  different  roads.  To  allow 
the  horses  a  plenty  of  hay  and  corn  would  cost  about  is. 
per  diem,  each  horse ;  supposing  you  purchase  your  forage 
in  the  most  economical  manner,  i.e.  of  the  farmers,  as  you 
pass  along,  from  time  to  time  as  you  may  want  it,  and 
carry  it  in  your  waggon ;  and  not  of  inn-keepers,  who  must 
have  their  profits.  The  provisions  for  the  family  I  would 
purchase  in  the  same  manner ;  and  by  having  two  or  three 
camp  kettles,  and  stopping  every  evening  when  the  weather 


i 


Flint, 

Recollections 
of  the  Last 
Ten  Years, 
13-16. 


Hinsdale, 
Old  North- 
west, 
Ch.  XIX. 


162      Industnal  History  of  the   United  States 

is  fine  upon  the  brink  of  some  rivulet,  and  by  kindling  a 
fire  they  may  soon  dress  their  food.  There  is  no  impedi- 
ment to  these  kind  of  things,  it  is  common,  and  may  be 
done  with  the  greatest  security ;  and  I  would  recommend 
all  persons  who  wish  to  avoid  expence,  as  much  as  possible 
to  adopt  this  plan.  True,  the  charges  at  inns  on  those 
roads  are  remarkably  reasonable,  but  I  have  mentioned 
those  particulars  as  there  are  many  unfortunate  people  in 
the  world,  to  whom  the  saving  of  every  shilling  is  an  object ; 
and  as  this  manner  of  journeying  is  so  far  from  being  dis- 
agreeable, that  in  a  fine  season,  it  is  extremely  pleasant." 
Once  arrived  at  Pittsburg  or  Wheeling,  it  was  easy  to  build 
a  flatboat  and  float  down  to  the  intended  location.  After 
1787  the  Ohio  was  the  popular  route  —  the  great  artery 
through  which  the  lifeblood  of  the  nation  was  driven  into 
the  new  West.  In  1792  there  were  twenty-five  hundred 
people  on  the  Ohio  Company  lands,  and  two  thousand 
in  the  Symmes  settlement.  By  1800  there  were  thirteen 
hundred  settlers  in  the  Connecticut  Reserve  on  Lake  Erie, 
and  the  population  of  Ohio  territory  amounted  to  fifty-five 
thousand  souls. 

South  of  the  Ohio.  —  Into  the  lands  south  of  the  Ohio 
River  settlers  were  free  to  bring  their  slaves.  Tobacco, 
hemp,  and  cotton  could  be  grown  to  advantage  by  slave 
gangs,  and  the  climate  was  too  warm  to  make  field  labor 
popular  for  the  white  race.  When  Kentucky  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Union  in  1792,  her  constitution  contained  no 
restrictions  on  slavery.  When  the  Southwest  Territory 
was  organized  in  1790,  the  Ordinance  embodied  all  the 
provisions  of  the  Northwest  Ordinance  except  the  pro- 
hibition of  slavery,  and  North  Carolina  had  made  her  ces- 
sion conditional  on  the  free  importation  of  slaves  into  this 
territory.  When  the  Mississippi  territory  was  acquired 
by  the  United  States  and  its  territorial  government  was 
established  in  1798,  all  the  articles  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787 
were  adopted  "  excepting  and  excluding  "  this  much-de- 
bated restriction. 

South  of  the  Tennessee  the  conditions  of    settlement 


ii 


National  Beginnings 


163 


Roosevelt, 
IV,  186-192. 

Haskins, 
The  Yazoo 
Land  Com- 
panies. 

Am.  State 
Papers, 
Public  Lands, 
II,  877-880. 

Dwight, 
I,  218-222. 

Lambert, 
205-211. 


Donaldson, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Sato, 
385-409. 


164      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

differed  from  those  that  obtained  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  north 
or  south.  Georgia  had  withheld  this  territory  from  the 
national  jurisdiction  for  a  full  decade  after  the  other 
claimant  states  had  ceded  their  Western  lands.  In  the 
interval  several  speculative  land  companies  had  been  char- 
tered and  allowed  to  establish  title  to  vast  tracts.  The 
lands  were  sold  to  the  highest  bidders  without  regard  to 
the  character  of  the  settlements  that  might  be  planted. 
The  purchasers  sent  their  overseers  into  the  country  with 
gangs  of  negro  slaves  to  clear  the  forests  and  plant  cotton 
in  the  fertile  upland  valleys.  Cotton,  like  tobacco  and 
rice,  is  a  crop  that  requires  a  large  amount  of  unskilled 
labor  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  It  can  be  cultivated 
most  economically  in  extensive  tracts  by  gangs  of  cheap 
laborers.  Since  the  industrial  advantage  rested  with  the 
great  estates,  the  man  without  capital  was  forced  down  into 
the  pine  barrens  or  back  into  the  hills  where  the  clay  soil 
was  unsuited  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton.  Little  else 
remained  available  when  the  United  States  land  offices 
were  finally  established. 

The  Sale  of  Public  Lands.  —  The  public  domain  was 
originally  regarded  as  an  important  source  of  revenue 
that  would  be  adequate  to  the  extinction  of  the  national 
debt.  One  dollar  per  acre  was,  however,  hardly  sufficient 
to  cover  the  costs  of  survey  and  registration,  and,  since 
wholesale  purchasers  got  considerable  reductions  on  this 
price,  the  actual  income  on  account  of  land  sales  fell  short 
of  expectations.  In  1796  the  price  to  individual  settlers 
was  raised  to  $2  per  acre,  but  payments  might  be  made 
by  installment.  To  secure  his  claim,  a  man  must  deposit 
one  twentieth  of  the  purchase  price,  in  addition  to  the 
costs  of  survey,  registration  fee,  etc.,  amounting  to  $n  ; 
one  fourth  of  the  total  price  must  be  paid  within  forty 
days,  one  half  within  two  years,  three  fourths  within  three 
years,  and  the  whole  sum  within  four  years  after  entering 
the  claim.  Six  hundred  and  forty  acres  might  thus  be 
taken  up  with  cash  to  the  amount  of  $331.  Ready 
money  was  scarce,  but  it  was  not  impossible  to  secure 


National  Beginnings 


165 


this  sum  at  the  rate  of  wages  then  prevailing,  and  many 
men  took  out  land  patents  with  no  provision  for  meeting 
later  installments  other  than  the  proceeds  of  the  crops 
yet  to  be  sown.     Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances 
this  was  a  safe  venture ;  but  if  the  land  failed  to  yield  a 
paying  crop,  or  if  it  lay  remote  from  a  market,  the  farmer 
could  not  meet  his  installments  as  they  fell  due  and  be- 
came   hopelessly  involved  in  debt.     Under    the  law  of 
1800,  his  farm  reverted  to  the  government  and  was  resold 
but  since  he  had  probably  put  considerable  labor  and  some 
money  into  the  land,  he  yielded  title  only  under  protest 
Congress  was  frequently  petitioned  to  pass  rehef  acts  for 
individuals  or  for  whole  districts,  extending  the  time  within 
which  the  installments  might  be  paid.     Finally   (1821) 
the  credit  feature  of  the  Act  of  1800  was  repealed,  and  the 
price  of  agricultural  lands  was  fixed  at  $1.25  per  acre 
All  the  advantages  of  the  credit  system  were,  however 
secured  to  bona  fide  settlers  by  the  preemption  acts.     The 
first  act  of  this  nature  was  passed  in  1801  in  behalf  of  the 
settlers  on  the  Miami  Company's  lands.     Symmes  had 
failed  to  fulfill  the  terms  of  his  contract  and  the  title  was 
forfeited..    To  prevent  injustice  to  the  men  who  had  taken 
up  land  within  the  tract,  Congress  provided  that  actual 
settlers  should  have  first  rights  in  the  resale  and  at  a  non- 
competitive price.     Other  preemption  acts  were  passed 
for  other  special  cases  until,  in  1830,  a  general  law  was 
enacted,  which,  being  renewed  from  year  to  year,  ultimately 
established  the  "squatter's  right."     Even  more  serious 
difficulty  arose  where  the  land  had  been  sold  to  speculators. 
Irresponsible  adventurers  sometimes  secured  large  tracts 
on  credit,  and  at  a  wholesale  price,  five  or  ten  or  twenty- 
five  cents  per  acre,  relying  upon  receipts  from  sales  to  meet 
the   annual   installments   due   the   government.     In   the 
Genesee  country,  whence  wheat  might  be  shipped  to  eastern 
markets,  this  was  a  safe  venture,  but  the  farmers  of  the 
Ohio  Valley  were  fairly  choked  with  their  own  produce 
and  had  much  more  trouble  in  meeting  money  obliga- 
tions. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Public  Lands, 
I,  75,  109, 
112,  127-131, 
909-910 ;  II, 
439-441- 


James  Flint, 
Letters  from 
America, 
Letter  XII, 
175-181. 


Martineau, 
I,  332-337. 


Weld, 

11,  325-338- 


Semple, 
Ch.  V. 
Michaux, 
Travels  to 
the  West- 
ward of  the 
Alleghany 
Mts., 
132-187. 


Imlay,  51, 
106-107. 


Roosevelt, 
I,  ii6,  122. 


166      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Need  of  Transportation  Facilities.  —  The  pioneer  farmer 
found  no  diflSculty  in  supplying  his  family  with  the  necessi- 
ties of  life,  —  food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  —  but  to  provide 
means  of  purchasing  the  articles  that  could  not  be  grown 
or  manufactured  on  the  place,  he  must  dispose  of  his 
surplus  crops.  Philadelphia  was  the  market  to  which  the 
settlers  in  the  Ohio  Valley  looked  for  the  supplies  of  salt 
and  iron,  firearms  and  gunpowder,  without  which  they 
could  not  support  life.  The  goods  came  by  pack  horse 
or  wagon  over  the  Lancaster  turnpike  and  Forbes  Road 
to  Pittsburg  and  thence  down  the  river  to  Limestone  or 
Louisville  or  beyond.  During  the  spring  floods  there  was 
little  hazard  in  floating  even  heavily  loaded  scows  over 
the  Falls.  The  return  voyage  was  more  difficult.  A  crew 
of  six  men  could  pilot  a  vessel  of  sixty  tons  burden  down- 
stream, but  twenty  were  necessary  to  propel  a  boat  of  five 
tons  capacity  by  sail  or  oar  up  current.  At  Louisville 
the  cargo  must  be  unloaded  and  carried  round  the  Falls. 
The  costs  of  the  return  voyage  were  so  great  that  it  was 
not  often  attempted.  Traders  usually  broke  up  the  scow 
into  planks  and  sold  them  as  lumber,  preferring  to  make 
the  eastward  journey  overland.  The  products  that  the 
Western  farmers  could  send  to  the  seaboard  —  grain,  cattle 
and  hides,  hemp  and  tobacco  —  were  so  bulky  that  the 
transportation  charges  ate  up  all  the  profits,  and  they 
exchanged  for  Eastern  manufactures  in  ruinous  dispro- 
portion. A  cow  and  her  calf  were  given  for  a  bushel  of 
salt,  while  a  suit  of  "  store  clothes  "  cost  as  much  as  a  farm. 
The  value  of  most  manufactured  commodities  was  en- 
hanced in  the  American  markets  by  the  protective  duties 
that  brought  the  price  of  foreign  goods  up  to  the  domestic 
cost  of  production. 

More  promising  outlets  for  Western  farm  products  lay 
by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Mon- 
treal and  Quebec,  and  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  to  Natchez 
and  New  Orleans.  Either  way  the  advantages  of  trans- 
portation were  with  the  outgoing  freight.  From  these 
British  and  Spanish  ports  the  goods  might  be  shipped  to 


National  Beginnings 


167 


I 


Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  or  Charleston,  or  directly 
to  European  markets.  As  trade  developed,  boats  were 
built  at  Pittsburg,  Marietta,  and  Louisville,  and  sent  directly 
to  the  West  Indies,  where  cargoes  of  grain  and  salt  meat 
were  exchanged  for  rum  and  silver.  Return  traflSc,  in 
case  the  goods  were  bulky,  or  could  transport  themselves, 
as  cattle,  horses,  and  slaves,  followed  the  buffalo  trails  or 
the  pioneer  roads  back  to  the  settlements.  Since  both  the 
British  and  the  Spanish  frontiers  offered  abundant  op- 
portunities for  smuggling,  the  profits  of  this  foreign  trade 
were  far  greater  than  could  be  derived  from  commerce 
with  the  Eastern  markets.  There  developed,  in  conse- 
quence, a  marked  antagonism  of  interest  between  the  agri- 
cultural communities  beyond  the  mountains  and  the  manu- 
facturing sections  of  the  seaboard. 

The  Cumberland  Road.  —  No  statesman  was  more 
interested  in  the  trans-Alleghany  country,  or  saw  more 
clearly  the  necessity  for  adequate  transportation  facilities, 
than  President  Washington.  As  a  young  surveyor  he 
had  blazed  the  trail  across  the  divide  between  the  Potomac 
and  the  Monongahela,  named,  from  his  Indian  guide, 
Nemacolin's  path,  and  he  was  in  command  of  the  Virginia 
troops  that  widened  the  trail  into  the  road  that  was  trav- 
ersed by  Braddock's  army.  Under  the  royal  proclama- 
tion of  1763,  Washington  had  been  awarded  bounty  lands 
on  the  Ohio  River,  and  his  holdings  between  the  Great 
and  Little  Kanawha  amounted  to  thirty  thousand  acres. 
At  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  ex-commander- 
in-chief  made  a  journey  over  the  mountains  to  look  after 
this  property.  On  his  return  he  addressed  a  letter  to 
Benjamin  Harrison,  Governor  of  Virignia,  urging  that  the 
state  undertake  the  building  of  a  wagon  road  across  the 
mountains  and  so  establish  commercial  connections  with 
her  trans-Alleghany  territory.  "  The  Western  settlers  (I 
speak  now  from  my  own  observation)  stand  as  it  were 
upon  a  pivot.  The  touch  of  a  feather  would  turn  them 
any  way.  They  have  looked  down  the  Mississippi  until 
the  Spaniards,  very  impoliticly  I  think  for  themselves, 


Michaux, 

145, 
250-266. 


Hulbert, 
Washing- 
ton's Road, 
Ch.  I,  IV,  V, 
VI. 

Hulbert, 

Cumberland 

Road. 


Writings  of 

George 

Washington, 

X,  324-325, 
350-352, 
361-366  ; 

XI,  32,  195- 
199. 


Writings  of 
George 
Washington, 
X,  408-409. 


,'.'     i 


Weld, 
h  53-79. 


1 68      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

threw  difficulties  in  their  way ;  and  they  looked  that  way 
for  no  other  reason,  than  because  they  could  glide  gently 
down  the  stream;  without  considering,  perhaps,  the 
difficulties  of  the  voyage  back  again,  and  the  time  necessary 
to  perform  it  in ;  and  because  they  have  no  other  means 
of  coming  to  us  but  by  long  land  transportations,  and  un- 
improved roads.  These  causes  have  hitherto  checked  the 
industry  of  the  present  settlers;  for  except  the  demand 
for  provisions,  occasioned  by  the  increase  of  population, 
and  a  Kttle  flour,  which  the  necessities  of  the  Spaniards 
compel  them  to  buy,  they  have  no  incitements  to  labor. 
But  smooth  the  road  and  make  easy  the  way  for  them, 
and  then  see  what  an  influx  of  articles  will  be  poured  upon 
us ;  how  amazingly  our  exports  will  l)e  increased  by  them, 
and  how  amply  we  shall  be  compensated  for  any  trouble 
and  expense  we  may  encounter  to  effect  it.  .  .  .  It  wants 
only  a  beginning.  The  western  inhabitants  would  do 
their  part  toward  its  execution.  Weak  as  they  are,  they 
would  meet  us  at  least  halfway,  rather  than  be  driven 
into  the  arms  of,  or  be  dependent  upon,  foreigners." 

Commissioners  were  later  appointed  by  Maryland  and 
Virginia  to  consider  means  of  improving  the  navigation 
of  the  Potomac  and  conferences  were  held  in  Alexandria 
(1785),  Annapolis  (1786),  and  Philadelphia  (1787),  but 
not  till  trade  with  the  back  country  began  to  assume  pro- 
portions that  interested  eastern  merchants,  was  effective 
action  taken.  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and 
the  new  national  capital  were  situated  on  waterways 
that  led  far  into  the  interior;  but  their  citizens  saw  that 
the  full  advantage  of  this  opportunity  would  not  be  realized 
until  goods  could  be  freighted  across  the  mountains.  In 
1802  Congress  voted  to  appropriate  one  twentieth  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  sale  of  Ohio  lands  to  the  making  of  "  public 
roads  leading  from  the  navigable  waters  emptying  into 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Ohio  "  and  on  through  the  Nortliwest 
Territory,  as  might  prove  serviceable.  The  Cumberland 
Road,  or  the  National  Turnpike,  as  it  was  known  in 
its  westward  extension,  diverged  from  Braddock's  Road 


National  Beginnings 


169 


at  Umontown,  Pennsylvania,  crossed  the  Monongahela 
River  at  Redstone  Old  Fort  and  the  Ohio  at  Wheeling 
The  surveyors  followed  a  pioneer  route,  Zane's  trace,  to 
Zanesville,  but  thereafter  struck  directly  west  through  Co- 
lumbus and  Indianapolis  to  Vandalia,  by  1838.  The  costs 
of  transportation  by  wagon  road  are  always  higher  than  by 
water  because  of  the  wear  and  tear  on  roadbed,  vehicle,  and 
draught  horses.  Hence  the  bulk  of  traffic  abandoned  the 
pike  wherever  river  transportation  was  available,  e.g  at 
Brownsvflle  on  the  Monongahela  and  at  Wheeling  on  the 
Ohio;  but  the  interior  sections  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and 
Ilhnois  were  opened  up  to  settlement  and  trade  in  much 
the  way  Washington  had  foreseen. 

^  Gallatin's  Plan.  —  Impressed  by  the  necessity  of  open- 
ing up  the  interior,  and  convinced  that  private  enterprise 
was  madequate  to  the  task,  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  submitted  to  Congress  (1808)  a  compre- 
hensive scheme  of  internal  improvements  which  he  pro- 
posed should  be  undertaken  in  whole  or  in  part  by  the 
national  government.  The  succession  of  peninsulas  jutting 
out  into  the  Atlantic  from  Cape  Cod  to  Cape  Hatteras 
interrupted  coastwise  navigation  and  offered  vexing  ob- 
stacles to  commerce.  They  should  be  cut  by  a  series  of 
canals  large  enough  for  ocean  vessels.  The  dangerous  out- 
side passage  from  Boston  to  New  York  could  be  avoided 
by  a  canal  across  the  narrow  neck  of  land  between  Cape 
Cod  Bay  and  Buzzards  Bay.  Water  communication  be- 
tween Delaware  and  Chesapeake  bays  would  do  away  with 
a  long  roundabout  voyage,  and  a  canal  between  Norfolk 
and  EUzabeth  City,  Virginia,  would  facilitate  commerce 
between  the  Chesapeake  and  Albemarle  Sound.  The  last 
two  enterprises  were  already  undertaken  by  private  com- 
pames,  but  the  work  should  be  carried  to  completion  by 
national  appropriation.  Other  -local  improvements,  such 
as  the  canalizing  of  the  Merrimac  River,  the  Middlesex 
Canal  connecting  Boston  with  Lowell,  the  SchuylkiU  and 
Delaware,  the  Schuylkfll  and  Susquehanna  canals,  were 
projects  worthy  of  national  aid.     Canal  communication 


McMaster, 
III,  463-464. 


Writings  of 

George 

Washington, 

X,  375-377. 
402-414,  428, 
475-476 ; 

XI,  42,  163, 
359-360. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Miscella- 
neous, 
I,  724-921. 

Rept.  Inland 

Waterways 

Commission, 

1908, 

534-581. 


i:;  1 1 


M 


li;  ■' 


Moore  and 
Jones, 
Travelers' 
Dictionary. 


1 1 


Roosevelt, 
IV,  Ch.  VI, 
VII. 

Semple, 
Ch.  VI. 


Sato, 
298-316. 


I 


Hosmer, 

Louisiana 

Purchase. 


170      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

should  be  established  from  the  Hudson  River  to  Lake 
Champlain  and  to  Lake  Ontario,  and  between  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Lake  Pontchartrain  at  New  Orieans.  The  series 
of  turnpikes  connecting  Boston  with  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  and  Washington  should  be  improved 
and  extended  so  that  a  great  post  road  running  from  Maine 
to  Georgia  might  insure  transportation  between  the  prin- 
cipal seaports. 

Between  the  seaboard  and  the  Western  states  communi- 
cation should  be  furthered  by  the  improvement  of  the 
Santee,  James,  Potomac,  and  Susquehanna  rivers,  and  by 
the  building  of  post  roads  to  connect  the  headwaters  of 
navigation  on  the  eastward  flowing  streams  with  the  corre- 
sponding western  rivers  —  the  Tennessee,  Kanawha,  Mo- 
nongahela,  and  Allegheny.  Water  transportation  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley  should  be  bettered  by  canals  around  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Niagara  rivers.  The  pioneer 
roads  radiating  from  Pittsburg  to  Detroit,  St.  Louis,  and 
New  Orleans  must  be  taken  over  by  the  national  govern- 
ment, since  local  resources  were  insufficient  to  their  satis- 
factory completion. 

Gallatin's  scheme  of  internal  improvements  was  frus- 
trated by  preoccupation  in  the  war  with  England,  but  the 
most  important  of  his  projects  were  later  accomplished. 

The  Louisiana  Purchase.  —  Beyond  the  Mississippi  lay 
a  vast  unknow^n  territory,  claimed  by  France  and  Spain 
and  France  in  turn,  but  tenanted  only  by  Indian  tribes. 
The  settlements  at  St.  Louis  and  St.  Charles  were  mere 
agricultural  villages  inhabited  by  the  French  refugees 
from  Vincennes  and  Kaskaskia  and  by  the  trappers  and 
voyageurs  employed  by  Chouteau's  fur  trading  company. 
The  region  to  the  north  and  west  was  terra  incognita. 
Indian  traders  had  pushed  up  the  Mississippi  to  the  Falls 
of  St.  Anthony  and  along  the  Missouri  to  the  Mandan  vil- 
lages ;  a  few  adventurous  Americans  had  visited  the  trans- 
Mississippi  country  and  learned  something  of  its  infinite 
possibilities ;  Daniel  Boone,  driven  from  Kentucky  by  the 
inroads  of  civilization,  was  trapping  and  farming  along  the 


National  Beginnings 


171 


lower  Missouri ;  Philip  Nolan  was  corralling  wild  horses 
on  the  plains  threaded  by  the  Brazos  River ;  but  as  yet 
the  land  was  not  coveted  for  its  own  sake.  The  chief 
significance  to  the  frontier  settlers  of  the  west  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  lay  in  the  danger  that  the  commandants 
stationed  at  St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans  might  interfere 
with  their  traffic  down  the  river.  In  1801  the  coveted 
right  of  deposit  at  New  Orleans  was  actually  suspended, 
and  the  Westerners  clamored  for  aid,  lest  the  trade  so  es- 
sential to  the  prosperity  of  the  American  settlements  be 
strangled  by  the  jealous  Spaniards.  When  Louisiana 
territory  was  ceded  to  Napoleon  Bonaparte  (1801)  and 
the  ambitious  First  Consul  proposed  to  found  a  colonial 
empire  in  this  realm  discovered  by  La  Salle,  President 
Jefferson  became  alarmed.  A  special  envoy  was  dis- 
patched to  Paris  and  negotiations  for  the  transfer  of  New 
Orleans  with  the  Floridas  or  Louisiana  were  set  on  foot. 
Fortunately  for  the  peace  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  Bona- 
parte had  the  sense  to  see  that  to  maintain  his  authority 
at  New  Orleans  would  cost  more  men  and  money  than  he, 
could  well  spare.  On  renewal  of  the  war  with  England 
(1803)  he  was  easily  induced  to  cede  the  whole  Louisiana 
territory  to  the  United  States  for  $15,000,000. 

No  man  in  that  day  knew  the  extent  and  resources  of 
the  region  thus  unexpectedly  acquired.  Captain  Robert 
Gray  of  Boston  in  the  course  of  a  trading  voyage  along  the 
Northwest  Coast  (1792)  had  come  upon  the  mouth  of 
a  great  river  which  he  named  after  his  good  ship  Columbia. 
Vancouver,  the  English  explorer,  sent  a  sloop  to  explore 
the  river  in  this  same  year,  and  made  a  thoroughgoing 
survey  of  Puget  Sound,  taking  possession  of  the  region 
in  the  name  of  Great  Britain ;  but  what  lay  between  the 
Pacific  Coast  and  the  Missouri  River  was  still  to  be  dis- 
covered. At  the  suggestion  of  President  Jefferson  (1802), 
Congress  authorized  an  exploring  expedition  which  was 
to  ascend  the  Missouri  to  its  source  and  cross  the  water- 
shed that  separated  the  eastward  from  westward  flowing 
streams  in  the  hope  of  coming  upon  the  upper  reaches  of 


Jefferson's 
Works, 
VIII,  144. 
190,  206, 
209.  249, 
262-263,  295 


Winsor, 
Narr.  and 
Crit.  Hist. 
America, 
VII,  556. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  V. 

Laut, 
Pt.  IV, 
Ch.  XI. 


I     ll 


-I , 


'I.     r! 


i  ' 


n 


V'     \ 


I 


Thwaites, 
Rocky  Mt. 
Exploration, 
62-208. 


Semple, 
Ch.  XI. 


Thwaites, 
Lewis  and 
Clark 
Journals. 


Cones, 
Pike's  Ex. 
pedition. 


172      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  river  discovered  by  Gray  ten  years  before.  In  the 
spring  of  1804  Captains  Lewis  and  Clark  set  out  from 
St.  Louis  on  this  arduous  enterprise.  They  wintered  at 
Mandan,  negotiating  treaties  of  peace  and  establishing 
trading  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes.  During  the  sum- 
mer of  1805  the  Httle  party  pushed  on  up  the  Missouri 
CO  the  Great  Falls  and  beyond  to  the  moimtain  ])arrier 
that  marked  the  confines  of  Louisiana.  There  they  cached 
their  boats,  and,  finding  Indian  guides  and  horses,  they 
crossed  by  Lolo  Pass  to  the  western  slope  of  the  Rockies. 
It  was  a  task  of  enormous  difficulty,  but  pluck  and  endur- 
ance brought  the  explorers  at  last  to  the  Clearwater  River. 
There  they  built  canoes  and  so  floated  down  the  mighty 
River  of  the  West  to  the  Pacific.  The  return  journey  was 
successfully  accompHshed  the  following  summer,  and  the 
heroic  captains  reached  St.  Louis  in  September,  1806, 
having  achieved  a  feat  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  ex- 
ploration. 

Already  in  1804  another  exploring  party,  commanded 
by  Lieutenant  Z.  M.  Pike,  had  ascended  the  Mississippi 
to  Leach  Lake  and  unfurled  the  Stars  and  Stripes  over  the 
British  trading  posts  in  that  neighborhood.  In  the  next 
year  Pike  undertook  to  find  the  source  of  the  Red  River, 
the  boundary  between  New  Spain  and  Louisiana.  Ascend- 
ing the  Missouri  and  the  Osage  rivers  and  thence  crossing 
the  plains  to  the  Arkansas,  he  reached  the  Rockies  jit  the 
foot  of  Pike's  Peak.  Pushing  southward  in  search  of  the 
Red  River,  the  indomitable  lieutenant  led  his  party  over 
the  Front  Range  to  the  sources  of  the  Rio  Grande.  But 
this  was  Spanish  ground,  and  the  exhausted  explorers  were 
soon  arrested  as  spies  and  conducted  to  Santa  Fe  and 
thence  to  Chihuahua  for  examination.  No  treasonable  in- 
tent being  discovered.  Pike  and  his  men  were  taken  back 
through  Texas  to  Natchitoches  on  Red  River.  Thus  were 
the  confines  of  the  newly  acquired  territory  determined. 

Both  Pike  and  Lewis  and  Clark  were  instructed  to 
make  careful  observations  of  the  regions  traversed.  Their 
journals  contain  interesting  notes  on  the  fauna  and  flora 


Natiotml  Beginnings 


US 


i 


Il   < 


iil 


Irving, 
Astoria. 


Turner, 
New  West, 
Ch.  VIII. 


I 


174      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

seen  en  route,  and  they  endeavored  to  ascertain  some- 
thing of  the  industrial  resources  of  the  country.  But 
their  contemporaries  were  fully  absorbed  in  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  lands  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  gave  little 
heed  to  the  new  acquisition.  Jefferson  thought  it  might 
be  utilized  as  a  reservation  for  the  Indian  tribes  who  barred 
the  way  of  the  settlers  in  the  Illinois  country.  The  vast 
wealth,  mineral  and  agricultural,  of  Louisiana  territory, 
and  the  commercial  possibilities  of  the  Pacific  Coast, 
remained  to  be  developed  by  a  later  generation.  The 
only  riches  immediately  available  were  furs  and  the  profits 
of  the  Indian  trade.  John  Jacob  Astor,  a  New  York 
merchant  who  had  amassed  a  fortune  in  the  China  trade, 
exchanging  furs  for  tea,  divined  the  advantages  of  the 
overland  route  to  the  Pacific.  He  projected  a  series  of 
trading  posts  along  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Missouri 
and  Columbia  rivers  and  proposed  to  send  the  furs  taken 
in  these  unexploited  regions  directly  across  the  Pacific 
to  Canton.  A  party  of  traders  and  trappers  was  sent  out 
over  the  Lewis  and  Clark  route,  but  the  supplies  were 
forwarded  by  sea.  After  many  and  costly  vicissitudes,  the 
two  parties  met  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  (iSii),  and 
there  a  trading  post,  Astoria,  was  built.  Unfortunately 
for  Astor's  project,  the  British  fur  traders,  the  Northwest 
Company,  contested  the  right  of  the  Americans  to  operate 
in  this  region,  and  Astor's  agents  were  induced  to  abandon 
the  enterprise.  A  man-of-war  flying  the  Union  Jack 
came  to  the  aid  of  the  Northwesters,  and  Astoria  became 
Fort  George  (18 12). 


A  PioxEER  Pilgrimage 


CHAPTER  VI 


INDUSTRIAL  CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  WAR  OF 

1812 

Vindication  of  the  Rights  of  Neutral  Trade 

American  Grievances.  —  Jay's  treaty  had  settled  none 
of  the  weighty  commercial  questions  at  issue  between 
England  and  the  United  States.  Another  treaty,  nego- 
tiated in  1807,  President  Jefferson  declined  even  to  refer 
to  the  Senate,  since  it  did  not  provide  for  the  inviolability 
of  neutral  trade  nor  guarantee  American  sailors  against 
being  impressed  into  British  service.  English  statesmen 
maintained  that  the  rights  and  obligations  of  a  British 
subject  were  inaUenable  and  that  a  man  born  in  the  British 
Isles  was  liable  to  impressment  though  he  might  have 
naturalized  as  an  American  citizen.  In  pursuance  of  this 
policy,  British  men-of-war  were  accustomed  to  cruise 
outside  our  harbors,  there  to  overhaul  merchantmen  as 
they  set  sail,  inspect  the  crew,  and  claim  the  sailors  who 
could  not  prove  American  birth.  In  the  case  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, a  cruiser  of  the  United  States  was  forcibly  searched, 
and  four  men  —  three  Americans  and  one  Briton  —  were 
carried  off  in  irons.  Not  less  than  sixteen  hundred  remon- 
strating sailors  were  thus  impressed  into  the  royal  navy, 
and  England,  hard  bestead  to  make  good  the  losses  of  war, 
was  loath  to  abandon  the  practice.  Three  times  the  right 
of  impressment  had  been  formally  protested  by  the  United 
States  government,  but  without  avail.  The  Foreign 
Office  retorted  that  thousands  of  British  sailors  had  de- 
serted from  his  Majesty's  ships  and  taken  service  on  Ameri- 
can vessels,  where  higher  wages  and  more  humane  treat- 
ment might  be  expected. 

17s 


McM  aster, 
III,  240-335. 

Hildreth, 
VI,  31-57, 
84-136,  187- 
206,  300-310. 

Annals  of 
Congress, 
1814-1815, 
1417-1452. 


Callender, 
239-260. 


i* 


176      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

Not  our  seamen  only,  but  our  mercantile  interests  were 
in  jeopardy.     England  was  mistress  of  the  seas,  for  the 
French  fleet  had  been  destroyed  at  Trafalgar,  and  European 
nations,  whether  friends  or  foes  of  Napoleon,  dared  not 
risk  a  vessel  out  of  port.     Few  flags  appeared  upon  the 
high  seas  but  the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
The  war  had  thrown  the  European  carrying  trade  largely 
into    the   hands    of  American    shipmasters,  because  the 
United  States  was  the  only  neutral  nation  possessed  of  a 
considerable    merchant    marine.     Jealous     of    the    com- 
mercial gains  accruing  to  this  formidable  rival,    English 
merchants  and  shipowners  sent  in  \  igorous  protests,  and 
the  government  set  about  devising  a  remedy.     An  order 
in  Council  of  1793  declared  ''  all  vessels  loaded  with  goods, 
the  produce  of  any  colony  of  France,  c^r  carrying  provisions 
or  supplies,  for  the  use  of  any  such  colony,"  liable  to  seizure. 
Under  this  order  British  men-of-war  were  authorized  to 
waylay  merchantmen  bound  to  or  from  the  French  V\'est 
Indies  and  to  confiscate  the  forbidden  goods.     This  policy 
had  important  advantages  for  Great  Britain ;   France  was 
deprived  of  supplies  from  her  colonies,  the  English  treasury 
was  enriched,  and  losses  were  inflicted  on  American  trade 
by  one  and  the  same  seizure.     In  180O  the  coast  of  Europe 
from  Brest  to  the  Elbe  was  declared  under  blockade,  and 
a  neutral  vessel  attempting  to  make  any  intervening  port 
was  lawful  prize.     Many  an  American  ship,  falling  foul 
of  a  British  man-of-war,  was  captured  and  conveyed  to 
a  British  port,  there  to  be  sold  for  the  l)enefit  of  her  captors, 
and  her  owners  and  the  merchants  who  had  shipped  the 
cargo  were  wholly  without  remedy. 

The  object  of  the  order  of  1806  was  to  punish  Prussia 
for  her  forced  alliance  with  the  enemy,  but  Napoleon,  fully 
master  of  the  Continent  since  the  peace  of  Tilsit,  met  this 
attack  by  a  counter  stroke.  The  Berlin  Decree  closed  all 
European  ports  to  British  vessels  and  British  merchandise. 
England^  immediately  retorted  by  an  order  in  Council 
announcing  that  no  netural  ship  might  trade  with  France 
or  her  allies  until  she  had  first  touched  at  a  British  port 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     177 

and  paid  reexportation  duties  there.  Napoleon  thereupon 
issued  the  Milan  Decree,  declaring  every  vessel  complying 
with  the  Brirish  order  "  denationalized  "  and  subject  to 
seizure.  Neither  Great  Britain  nor  Napoleon  made  any 
serious  attempt  to  enforce  these  blockades  by  an  adequate 
naval  force,  but  the  decrees  served  to  justify  the  seizures 
of  neutral  vessels  made  occasionally  by  men-of-war,  more 
often  by  privateers  licensed  by  the  warring  powers. 

The  losses  inflicted  on  American  commerce  were  too  McMaster, 
heavy  to  be  patiently  borne,  and  Congress  was  besieged   111,412-4^7- 
by  petitions  from  the  merchants  of  the  seaports  —  Salem, 
Boston,    New    York,    Philadelphia,    and    Baltimore  — 
setting  forth  the  "  great  injuries  suffered  by  the  aggres- 
sions of  the  belligerent  powers  "  and  demanding  protection. 
The  authorities  were  perplexed.     President  Jefferson,  a  Marvin, 
Virginian  and  a  planter,  had  no  adequate  conception  of  Ch.  VII. 
the   importance   of   the   interests   involved.     He   desired 
above  all  things  to  avoid  war,  and  he  hoped  to  bring  both 
powers  to  terms  by  depriving  them  of  the  benefits  of  Ameri- 
can trade  ;  therefore  he  recommended  to  Congress  in  a  spe- 
cial message  (December  16,  1807)  "  the  inhibition  of  the  de- 
parture of  our  vessels  from  the  ports  of  the  United  States." 
Within  the  week  the  suggestion  of  the  President  became  the 
law  of  the  land.     The  Embargo  Act  prohibited  American 
vessels  already  in  harbor  sailing  for  a  foreign  cruise,  every 
vessel  returning  to  port  was  to  be  detained,  merchantmen 
owned  by  foreigners  were  excluded  from  American  waters, 
while  the  United  States  navy  and  the  revenue  cutters 
were  placed  at  the  disposition  of  the  executive  for  the  en- ' 
forcement  of  the  order.     Thus,  not  only  transatlantic  trade, 
but  the  profitable  commerce  with  the  French,  Dutch,  and 
Spanish  West  Indies  that  had  developed  during  the  Euro- 
pean war  was  brought  to  a  standstill,  and  only  the  coast- 
wise trade  remained  open  to  our  merchant  marine.    Lest 
this  afford  chance  to  venture  out  to  sea,  no  vessel,  not  even 
the  smallest  fishing  smack,  was  allowed  to  sail  without 
giving  bonds,  six  times  the  value  of  her  cargo,  to  reland 
the  same  in  the  United  States.    In  case  of  violation  both 

N 


Lambert, 

Travels 

through 

Can.  and 

U.S.,  II, 

62-65, 

294-295. 


178      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

cargo  and  vessel  were  forfeited,  while  owner  and  captain 
were  subject  to  heavy  fines. 

The  effects  of  the  Embargo  were  soon  evident  in  dimin- 
ished trade.     The  value  of  the  imports  of  1808  was  not  half 
that  of  1807,  and  the  exportations  of  the  Embargo  year 
shrank  to  one  fifth  those  of  the  previous  twelve  months. 
Nevertheless,    the    decUne   in    tonnage    registered    under 
the  United  States  flag  for  the  foreign  trade  was  slight. 
Some  ships  were  sold  to  Enghsh  firms  or  registered  imder 
the  British  flag,  but  most  shipowners  let  their  vessels  lie 
idle  at  the  wharfs,  hoping  for  a  reversal  of  the  admimstra- 
tion's  disastrous  policy.     The  $50,000,000  of  capital  in- 
vested in  shipping  brought  in  no  revenue,  and  thirty  thou- 
sand out  of  forty  thousand  American  sailors  were  suddenly 
thrown  out  of  employment.     Some  defiant  sea  captains 
avoided  the  home  ports  altogether  and  made  voyage  after 
voyage  between  foreign  lands,  preferring  to  run  the  risk 
of  capture  rather  than  incur  the  sure  losses  of  detention 
in  an  American  harbor.     Prices  of  foreign  commodities 
doubled,  while  prices  of  domestic  goods  fell  below  the  cost 
of  production.     Lumbermen  and  fishermen  were  reduced 
to  beggary,  and  farmers,  unable  to  dispose  of  their  prod- 
uce, offered  their  lands  for  sale.     The  mercantile  classes 
suffered  no  less.     In  New  York  the  I^mbargo  caused  one 
hundred    and    twenty    bankruptcies    and    threw    twelve 
hundred  unfortunates  into  the  debtors'  prison.     An  English 
traveler  thus  describes   the  first   commercial  city  in  the 
United  States  after  five  months  of  this  ruinous  regime: 
''The  port,  indeed,  was  full  of  shipping;  but  they  were 
dismantled  and  laid  up.     Their  decks  were  cleared,  their 
hatches  fastened  down,  and  scarcely  a    sailor  was  to  be 
found  on  board.     Not  a  box,  bale,  cask,  barrel,  or  package 
was  to  be  seen  upon  the  wharves.     Many  of  the  counting 
houses  were  shut  up,  or  advertised  to  be  let ;  and  the  few 
solitary  merchants,  clerks,  porters,  and  laborers  that  were 
to  be  seen,  were  walking  about  with  their  hands  in  their 
pockets.     Instead  of  sixty  or  a  hundred  carts  that  used  to 
stand  in  the  street  for  hire,  scarcely  a  dozen  appeared,  and 


\ 


Primitive  Limberixg 


H 


I«. 


m 


\ 


[ 


i 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the  War  of  1812     179 

they  were  unemployed ;  a  few  coasting  sloops,  and  schoon- 
ers, which  were  clearing  out  for  some  of  the  ports  in  the 
Umted  States,  were  all  that  remained  of  that  immense 
busmess  which  was  carried  on  a  few  months  before 
The  streets  near  the  waterside  were  almost  deserted,*  the 
grass  had  begun  to  grow  upon  the  wharves,  and  the  minds 
of  the  people  were  tortured  by  the  vague  and  idle  rumors 
that  were  set  afloat  upon  the  arrival  of  every  letter  from 
England  or  from  the  seat  of  government." 

When  the  Embargo  gave  way  to  nonintercourse  with 
Great  Britain  (1809)  Americans  speedily  availed  them- 
selves of  the  golden  opportunities  of  neutral  commerce 
13y  1810  our  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade  had 
reached  981,019,  the  highest  point  in  the  first  skty  years 
of  our  national  history,  while  the  proportion  of  foreign 
trade  carried  on  in  United  States  vessels,  which  had  fallen 
from  92  per  cent  to  86  per  cent  under  the  influence  of  the 
Embargo,  recovered  to  91.5  per  cent. 

The  War.  —  Jefferson's  abstention  policy  served  neither 
to  vmdicate  the  rights  of  neutral  trade  nor  to  avert  war 
Napoleon  made  a  pretense  of  repeaUng  the  Beriin  and  Milan 
decrees  but  imposed  restrictions  on  American  commerce 
no  less  burdensome.  England  abolished  the  reexportation 
duties  but  prohibited  the  carrying  of  American  products, 
notably  cotton,  to  Continental  ports,  and  the  impressment 
of  seamen  continued  unchecked.  In  181 1  a  congressman 
asserted  that  ten  thousand  American  seamen  had  been 
kidnaped  for  the  English  service.  War  was  declared  in 
June,  1812.  Our  coasts  were  quickly  infested  by  a  British 
fleet,  and  thereafter  commerce  with  Europe  was  carried 

""V!  ^1^1^^  ^t^\  '^^'  ^^'  ^^'^^  ^^  J^ly  ^'  ^812,  doubled 
and  trebled  the  duties  on  imported  commodities.  Imports 
and  exports  rapidly  declined,  until  their  combined  value 
(1814)  was  but  $20,000,000,  one  seventh  of  the  foreign 
trade  of  1810.  Our  shipowners  faced  ruin,  and  the  tempta- 
tion to  revenge  the  seizures  and  confiscations  of  the  ten 
years  preceding  by  direct  retaliation  on  British  commerce 
was  too  strong  to  be  resisted.     Spite  of  scruples  as  to  the 


Maclay, 
225-226, 
503-506. 

Abbot, 
Ch.  V. 


.M  ■    ^ 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
J814-1815, 
1285-1298, 

I383-1398. 


180      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

rightfulness  cf  privateering,  many  shipowners  took  out 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  and  armed  their  vessels  for 
war.     Every   species   of   craft  —  merchantmen,  coasting 
schooner,  pilot  boat,  and  fishing  smack  —  was  fitted  up 
with  guns  and  ammunition  and  sent  out  to  prey  upon  the 
enemy.     From  Salem,  Gloucester,  Marblehead,  and  New- 
port, from  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  scores 
of  privateers  put  out  to  sea,  and  even  the  Southern  ports 
—  Norfolk,  Wilmington,  Charieston,  Savannah,  and  New 
Orleans  —  sent  a  considerable  contingent.     Sixty-five  ves- 
sels were  commissioned  as  privateers  in  the  first  three 
weeks  of  the  war,  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  the  first  two 
months.     During  the  summer  of  181 2  one  hundred  prizes 
were  taken,  and  but  fifty  vessels  were  lost  to  the  enemy, 
only  thirteen  of  these  being  privateers.     During  the  three 
years  of  war  the  five  hundred  and  fifteen  privateers  com- 
missioned  by   the    United    States  government  captured 
over   thirteen   hundred   British   vessels,   most   of    them 
merchantmen   carrying  valuable   cargoes.     Congress    al- 
lowed a  rebate  of  one  third  the  import  duty  on  captured 
goods  and  offered  $25  for  each  prisoner  taken. 

The  War  of  181 2  was  a  naval  war.  The  exploits  of  our 
little  navy,  coupled  with  the  devastations  wrought  by  our 
privateers,  forced  Great  Britain  to  recognize  that  a  rival 
maritime  power  had  arisen.  A  score  of  signal  victories 
won  in  the  English  Channel,  in  mid-Pacific,  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  finally  convinced  the 
English  government  that  the  United  States  must  henceforth 
be  treated  with  respect ;  but  the  immediate  result  was  not 
commensurate  with  our  successes.  The  Peace  of  Ghent 
adjudicated  certain  open  questions  as  to  boundaries  and 
the  status  of  hostile  Indian  tribes,  but  settled  none  of 
the  prime  matters  in  dispute.  The  American  contentions 
that  free  ships  should  make  free  goods  and  that  the  flag 
should  protect  the  crew  were  not  incorporated  in  the 
treaty,  nor  would  the  British  commissioners  consent  to 
define  a  legitimate  blockade.  Nevertheless,  England 
quietly  dropped   her   much-prized    right    of   impressing 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     181 

Americans  into  her  service,  and  having  proved  their  abil- 
ity to  defend  themselves,  our  seamen  were  thereafter  free 
from  molestarion.  The  added  prestige  won  by  the  United 
States  in  the  War  of  1812  was  voiced  by  the  London 
Times.  "  Their  first  war  with  England  made  them  inde- 
pendent; their  second  made  them  formidable." 

The  Reciprocity  Treaties.  —  In  the  first  two  years  fol- 
lowmg  on  the  Peace,  our  shipping  interests  experienced 
a  remarkable  revival  of  prosperity.     The  total  volume  of 
exports  and  imports  in  18 16  amounted  to  ten  times  that 
of  1 8 14,  while  the  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade  rose 
from  674,633  to  860,760.     But  this  welcome  prosperity 
was  short-lived.     By  1821  the  foreign  commerce  of  the 
United  States  had  shrunk  to  half  the  proportions  of  1816, 
and  our  ocean  tonnage  was  less  than  in  1797.     A  variety 
of  causes  contributed  to  this  lamentable  decline.     The 
protecrive  tariff  of  1816  which  discouraged  importation, 
the  business  crisis  of  1819  which  curtailed  investments,' 
the  development  of  manufactures  and  domestic  trade  that 
tended  to  make  us  independent  of  foreign  trade,  doubtless 
mjured  the  shipping  interest ;   but  the  heaviest  blow  was 
struck  when  Congress  substituted  reciprocity  for  the  dis- 
criminating duties  that  had  hitherto  protected  American 
vessels  against  English  competition.     With  the  intention 
of  freeing  our  ships  from  the  restrictions  imposed  in  British 
and  European  ports,  we  offered  our  rivals  reciprocal  free 
trade.     Discriminating  tonnage  duties  and  excess  duties 
on  goods  imported  in  foreign  vessels  were  to  be  repealed  in 
so  far  as  they  affected  the  countries  that  should  aboUsh 
all  discrimination  against  the  shipping  of  the  United  States. 
Great  Britain  was  the  first  nation  to  avail  herself  of  this 
generous  offer.     On  July  3,  1815,  a  convention  was  con- 
cluded providing  that  ''  there  should  be  between  the  terri- 
tories of  the  United  States  and  all  the  territories  of  His  Bri- 
tannic Majesty  in  Europe  reciprocal  liberty  of  commerce." 
Our  discriminating  tonnage  and  customs  duties  were  re- 
hnquished  in  exchange  for  the  privilege  of  entering  ports 
of  the  British  Isles  without  let  or  hindrance ;    American 


Bates, 

98-129. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  IX. 


Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Annals  of 
Congress, 
1814-181S, 
263-267. 

Annals  of 
Congress, 
1815-1816, 
1478-1506. 


If,  ■'. 


Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View  U.S., 
Ch.  IV. 


182      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

vessels  were  to  be  "  admitted  and  hospitably  received  at 
the  principal  settlements  of  the  British  dominions  in  East 
India  ;  but  the  ports  of  the  British  West  Indies  remained 
closed  for  fifteen  years  longer,  and  maritime  trade  with 
Canada  was  under  the  ban  until  1850. 

It  is  an  open  question  whether  we  got  more  than  we  gave 
in  this,  and  the  reciprocity  treaties  subsequently  negotiated 
With  Sweden,  the  Netherlands,  Prussia,  Spain,  the  Hanse- 
atic  cities,  —  Hamburg,  Bremen,  and  Lubeck,  —  Olden- 
burg, Sardinia,  and  Russia.     During  the  following  decade 
there  was  some  increase  in  American  tonnage  engaged  in 
foreign  trade,  but  not  in  proportion  to  the  increase  in 
population  and  wealth ;  indeed,  tonnage  per  capita  steadUy 
declined.    The  volume  of  foreign  commerce  gained  but 
slowly,  and  the  figures  of  1806  and  1807  were  not  again 
reached  until  1835.    Notwithstanding  British  competition 
our  shipmasters  managed  to  increase  their  proportion  of 
transatlantic  commerce  for  the  first  ten  years  of  reciprocity 
A  hne  of  fast-saihng  packets  was  esta})lished  between  New 
York  and  Liverpool  in  1816-1817,  and  another  in  182 1- 
1822,  a  third  Une  plied  to  London  and  Havre  after  1822 
and  a  direct  line  to  Havre  after  1832.     Our  paramount 
advantages  for  the  building  of  sailing  ships  enabled  us  to 
offer  the  most  favorable  terms,  and  thus  for  a  time  to  mo- 
nopolize foreign  commerce  under  a  regime  of  a  free  field 
and  no  favors.     This  advantage  was  largely  done  away 
by  the  tariff  of  1828,  which  imposed  heavy  duties  on  bolt 
iron,  copper,  canvas,  hemp  rope,  etc.,  while  offering  no 
compensating    protection     to     shipping    interests.     The 
British  tonnage  entering  our  ports  was  78,947  in  1830 
the  year  following  it  rose  to  143,806,  and  the  average  for 
the  decade  1830-1840  was  212,661.     Under  this  keen  com- 
petition freight  rates  fell  disastrously,  and  the  proportion 
of  foreign  trade  carried  in  American  vessels  dropped  from 
92.5  per  cent  in  1826  to  82.9  per  cent  in  1840. 

The  real  gainers  from  the  reciprocity  policy  were  not 
the  shipowners,  but  the  farmers  and  planters,  whose  sur- 
plus products  were  sent  to  foreign  markets  at  decHning 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the  War  of  1812     183 

freight  rates.    The  value  of  our  cotton  exports  rose  from 
$24,106,000  mi8i6  to  $36,846,000  in  1825,  and  $64,661,000 
in  1835      Dunng  the  same  time  the  exports  of  wheat,  flour 
nee,  and  tobacco  barely  held  their  own,  not  because  of  any 
check  m  the  foreign  demand,  but  because  all  available 
soils  were  converted  to  cotton  culture.     The  rice  and  indigo 
plantations  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  were  turned 
to  the  growing  of  Sea  Island  cotton;   the  wheat  fields  of 
the     back  country"  were  planted  to  the  "green  seed" 
or  short  staple  variety.     Production  increased  from  i56,ocio 
bales  m  1800  to  340,000  in  1810,  and  458,000  in  1816,  and 
606,000  in  1820,  and  from  one  half  to  two  thirds  of  the  crop 
was  e^orted.     It  was  esdmated  that  $40,000,000  was 
invested  m  cotton  plantations,   and   that   the  planters 
cleared  50  per  cent  on  their  investment  during  the  early 
years  when  high  prices  prevailed. 

ill  ^sheries.  -Another  New  England  industry  that 
felt  the  111  effects  of  the  war  was  the  cod  fishery.     Freedom 
to  fish  off  the  Grand  Banks  and  in  other  Canadian  waters 
had  been  fully  conceded  in  the  treaty  of  1783,  and  our  com- 
missioners were  instructed  to  secure  an  equivalent  con- 
cession in  the  Peace  of  Ghent,  but  they  failed  to  do  so. 
I  he  English  government  declared  that  this  was  a  privilege 
not  a  right,  and  that  it  had  been  abrogated  by  the  war' 
The  vexed  question  was  adjudicated  in  1818,  when  Ameri- 
can fishermen  secured  the  "  Hberty  "  to  fish  within  certain 
hmited  areas  and  to  use  such  adjacent  coasts  as  might  be 
unsettled  for  curing    their    fish.     Populated    bays    and 
harbors  could  be  entered  by  our  fishing  smacks  only  when 
in  need  of  shelter,  repairs,  wood,  and  water.     The  Cana- 
chans  demanded  that  in  return  for  these  favors  their  fish 
should  be  allowed  full  entry  into  the  United  States;   but 
the  fishing  interest  protested  against  throwing  open  our 
markets,  and  the  war  duties  of  $1  a  quintal  on  dried  and 
eighty-five  cents  on  pickled  fish  were  retained.    On  the 
other  hand,  the  Americans  were  not  allowed  to  send  fish 
into  the  Bridsh  West  Indies.     The  dispute  engendered 
rnuch  htter  feeling,  and  even  led  to  violent  confests  be 
tween  the  nval  parties. 


Michaux, 
290,  303. 

Hammond, 
31-33,  and 
Appendix. 


McMaster, 

IV,  457-469. 

Schuyler, 
Am.  Diplo- 
macy, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Henderson, 
Am.  Dipl. 
Questions, 
471-500. 

Abbot, 
Ch.  IX. 

Marvin, 
Ch.  XIII. 


Bishop, 
II,  X  46-1 68, 
188-214. 

Stanwood, 
American 
Tariff  Con- 
troversies, 
I,  1H-137. 


Bagnall, 
I,  Ch.  X. 


184      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Development  of  Manufactures 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  s[)ite 
of  the  encouragement,  legislative  and  otherwise,  that  had 
been  given  to  manufactures,  the  United  States  was  still 
in  the  main  an  agricultural  nation.  We  were  producing 
more  both  of  food  products  and  raw  materials  than  were 
consumed  in  the  country,  and  we  could  not  provide  manu- 
factured commodities  sufficient  to  supply  the  home  market. 
In  the  natural  course  of  trade  our  exports  of  raw  materials 
and  foodstuffs  would  pay  for  the  impi^rts  of  manufactured 
goods.  This  was  satisfactory  to  the  shipping  interest 
since  it  insured  profitable  cargoes,  — to  the  farmer  since  it 
opened  foreign  markets  for  his  produce,  and  to  the  consumer 
since  he  secured  goods  of  the  best  quality  at  low  prices; 
but  it  placed  manufacturers  at  a  disadvantage. 

Cotton    Manufactures.  —  The    Embargo,    the    Nonin- 
tercourse  Act,  and  the  War  of  1812  gave  domestic  manu- 
facturers a  virtual  monopoly  of  the  home  market  for  a 
period  of  seven  years.     The  exclusion  of  English  goods, 
now  as  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  threw  the  country 
upon  its  own  resources,  while  commerce  being  rendered 
unprofitable,  business  enterprise  turned  to  manufactures 
as  the  most  promising  available  venture.     Much  of  the 
capital  withdrawn  from  shipping  was  invested  in  cotton 
mills.     Slater's  success  at  Pawtucket  had  demonstrated 
the  possibilities  of  this  new  textile  industry,  and  men 
trained  under  his  eye  went  out  to  set  up  rival  establish- 
ments.    The  mills  at  Slatersville,  Rhode  Island,  Pomfret, 
Connecticut,  and  Union  Village,  New  York,  were  direct 
offshoots  from  the  ''  Old  Mill."     For  the  first  ten  years  de- 
velopment was  slow  ;  and  only  four  mills  were  in  successful 
operation  in  1804.     When,  however,  English  competition 
was  excluded,  an  epoch  of  extraordinary  progress  opened 
In  1807  there  were  fifteen  cotton  mills  running  8000  spindles 
and  producing  300,000  pounds  of  cotton  yarn  annually  • 
in  181 1  there  were  eighty-seven  mills  operating  8o,ooci 
spmdles,  producing  2,880,000  pounds  of   yarn  per   year 


Industrial  Consequences  of  tfle    War  of  1812     185 

and  employing  4000  men,  women,  and  children;  in  1815, 
500,000  spindles  gave  employment  to  76,000'  persons' 
with  a  pay  roll  of  $15,000,000  per  year.  Rhode  Island 
was  the  center  of  this  flourishing  industry.  Within  thirty 
nules  of  Providence  were  one  hundred  and  thirty  mills 
running  130,000  spindles  and  employing  26,000  operatives ; 
but  other  states  were  not  far  behind.  Massachusetts 
chartered  fifty  textile  companies  between  1806  and  1814- 
New  York  chartered  fifteen  such  corporations  in  the  year 
1813;  there  were  then  five  spinning  mills  in  Paterson 
New  Jersey,  and  eleven  in  Baltimore.  The  mills  of  New 
England  were  generaUy  run  by  water  power,  those  of  the 
West  and  South  more  often  by  horse  power.  Steam  was 
first  successfully  used  as  a  motor  for  spinning  machinery 
at  Ballston,  New  York,  in  1810. 

The  yarn  spun  in  the  mill  was  as  yet  woven  on  hand 
looms  m  the  homes  of  the  neighboring  countryside.     Many 
efforts  had  been  made  to  imitate  the  power  looms  recently 
introduced  into  the  cotton  factories  of  England.     Machines 
had  been  patented  in  1803  and  1804,  but  they  proved  im- 
practicable.    In  1814  Francis   C.  LoweU  returned  from  a 
European  sojourn  bent  on  estabhshing  in  Massachusetts 
a  cotton  factory  better  than  those  of    Manchester.     He 
devised  and  constructed  the  first  successful  power  loom 
set  up  in  this  country,  and  built,  in  Waltham,  Massa- 
chusetts, the  first  cotton  mill  in  which  all  the  processes  of 
spinning,  weaving,  and  printing  were  carried  on   under 
one  roof.      The  venture  was  a  brilliant  success.      Other 
looms  were  rapidly  constructed  and  other  factories  equipped 
with  this  labor-saving  device.     The  machine  was  soon 
adapted  to  the  weaving  of  sheetings,  ginghams,  and  sail 
duck.     Improvements   were   made   in    the    processes    of 
carding,   spinning,   and  calendering,   and  in  the  central 
motor  power.     The  work  was  so  simplified  that  the  looms 
could  be  tended  by  women  and  the  spinning  frames  by 
children,  so  that  the  more  expensive  labor  of  men  was  re- 
quired only  for  the  heavier  tasks.     From  five  to  six  sevenths 
of  the  operatives  were  women  and  children,  a  result  that 


Appleton, 
Introduction 
of  the  Power 
Loom. 


Census,  i860, 
Manufac- 
tures, 

xv-xx. 

Montgomery, 

Cotton 

Manufacture. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance,  II, 
666-689. 


Census, 
i860.  Manu- 
factures,  I 
XXVI, 
XXVII, 
XXXI, 
XXXII. 


186      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Hamilton  would  have  heartUy  approved.  Tench  Coxe 
writing  in  1813,  waxed  eloquent  over  the  industrial  miracle 
achieved.  "These  wonderful  machines,  working  as  if 
they  were  ammated  beings,  endowed  with  all  the  talents 
of  their  inventors,  laboring  with  organs  that  never  tire 
and  subject  to  no  expense  of  food  or  bed  or  raiment  or 
dwelhng,  may  be  justly  considered  as  equivalent  to  an 
immense  body  of  manufacturing  recruits,  enhsted  in  the 
service  of  the  country." 

The  value  of  our  cotton  manufactures  in  1810  was 
$4,000,000;  in  1815  it  was  $19,000,000,  and  nearly  ade- 
quate to  the  needs  of  the  country.  In  1800  the  spinning 
mills  consumed  500  bales  of  cotton,  in  1805,  1000  bales; 
ten  years  later  90,000  bales  were  required  to  feed  the  half 
million  spindles.  But  the  cotton  crops  outran  the  domestic 
demand,  and,  notwithstanding  the  increased  consumption 
the  pnce  of  cotton  wool  fell  from  twenty-four  cents  a  pouad 
in  1800  to  sixteen  cents  in  1810  because  the  EngUsh 
market  was  closed. 

Woolen   Manufactures.  —  Cotton   was   "our  only   re- 
dundant   raw   material."     The    development    of   woolen 
manufactures,  on  the  contrary,  was  retarded  by  the  scarcity 
of  wool.    The  effort  to  promote  the  raising  of  sheep,  set  on 
foot  dunng  the  Revolutionary  War,  had  not  been  Aery 
successful.     The  cUmate  of  New  England,  where  the  agi- 
tation was  most  earnest,  proved  too  severe,  and  most  of 
the  wool  made  up  in  the  United  States  was  still  imported, 
the  finer  grades  from  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Saxony,  the 
coarse  from  Russia,  Syria,  and  South  America.     The  epoch 
of  nonmtercourse  brought  the  necessity  for  a  domestic 
supply  forcibly  before  the  public,  and  just  at  this  juncture 
the  Pemnsular  War  threw  the  Spanish  flocks  upon  the 
market.     Enterprising  farmers  began   importing  merino 
sheep,  and  by  1809  there  were  five  thousand  in  the  country. 
In  181 1  was  organized  th^  Merino  Society  of  the  Middle 
States.    Prizes  were  offered  for  essays  on  sheep  husbandry 
and  for  the  best  specimens  of  the  Spanish  breed,  and  the 
farmers  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  vied  with  each  other 


\ 


Industrial  Consequences  of  tJte   War  of  1812     187 

in  the  quantity  and  quaHty  of  their  wool  cUps.  Prices 
justified  heavy  expenditure ;  merino  wool  sold  at  seventy- 
five  cents  a  pound  in  181 1  and  ranged  from  two  to  three 
dollars  in  18 13. 

The  textile  machinery,  so  successful  in  cotton  manu- 
facture, was  soon  adapted  to  the  spinning  and  weaving  of 
woolen  cloth.    The  manufacture  of  broadcloth  was  first 
attempted    by    two    young    Englishmen,    the    Scholfield 
brothers,  who  set  up  a  carding  machine,  a  spinning  jenny, 
and  a  hand  loom  at  Newburyport  in  1794.    The  business 
was  soon  transferred  to  Pittsfield,  where  the  Housatonic 
River  furnished  reliable  water  power;    and  here  during 
the    nonimportation    period    a    successful    industry    was 
estabUshed.     The  Scholfield  factory  wove   the  material 
for  the  suit  of  domestic  broadcloth  in  which  President 
Madison  was  inaugurated.     The  power  loom  was  introduced 
mto  woolen  manufacture  by  Rowland  Hazard  at  South 
Kingston,   Rhode  Island.     Hazard  had  made  a  fortune 
m  the  West  India  trade,  but  having  lost  heavily  by  con- 
fiscations under  the  orders  in  Council,  he  purchased  the 
water  power  on  Rocky  Brook  and  devoted  his  energies 
to  cloth  manufacture.     The  machine  he  introduced  was 
intended  to  weave  boot,  suspender,  and  girth  webbing, 
but  It  was  found  that  the  work  could  be  better  done  on 
the  hand  loom.     The  enterprise  was  pursued,  however 
with  courage  and  persistence,  until,  by  1828,  a  complete 
woolen  factory,  equipped  with  carding,  spinning,  and  weav- 
ing machinery,  and  aU  run  by  water  power,  was  in  full 
operation. 

Iron  Manufactures  were  furthered  by  the  discovery  of 
a  new  fuel,  —  anthracite  coal.  When  the  first  ark  load 
of  "  stone  coal  "  was  brought  down  the  Lehigh  and  Dela- 
ware rivers  to  Philadelphia  in  1803,  it  was  thought  good 
for  nothing  but  to  "gravel  footwalks."  The  difficulty 
of  igniting  the  lumps  seemed  an  insuperable  obstacle  to 
Its  use  as  fuel,  until  one  Joseph  Smith,  the  inventor  and 
manufacturer  of  the  iron  plowshare,  conceived  the  idea 
(1812)  of  building  his  fire  over  a  grating  so  as  to  secure 


Bagnall, 
I,  Ch.  VIII, 
■A.,  Jx.\.. 

Census, 
i860.  Manu- 
factures, 
XXIX- 
XXX. 


Nichols, 
Story  of 
Am.  Coals. 
Ch.  IV. 


Swank, 
Ch.  XIX, 
XX. 


Michaux, 


1 88      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

a  stronger  draft.  The  plan  was  successful,  and  heat  suffi- 
cient to  fuse  iron  was  readily  developed.  The  War  of 
1812  cut  off  the  cargoes  of  bituminous  coal  from  England, 
and  since,  with  the  clearing  of  the  forests,  the  supj)iy  of 
wood  was  growing  scant,  the  iron  masters  of  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania were  forced  to  utiHze  the  despised  anthracite. 

The  most  important  development  in  the  iron  industry 
was  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Ore  was  discovered  in  the 
valley  of  the  Youghiogheny  and  a  furnace  set  up  in  1790. 
In  1805  there  were  five  furnaces  and  six  forges  in  Fayette 
County,  and  three  rolUng  and  slitting  mills  and  a  steel 
furnace  were  successfully  established  by  181 1.  The  iron 
deposits  of  the  river  valleys  to  the  north  were  being  de- 
veloped in  the  same  period.  Because  of  her  unexcelled 
advantages  in  the  way  of  water  transportation,  Pittsbur'^ 
126-127, 200,  was  the  natural  center  for  this  rising  industry.  Ore  and 
pig  iron  were  floated  down  the  Allegheny  River  and  the 
Monongahela  to  the  foundries,  rolHng  miUs,  and  nail 
factories  of  the  Smoky  City.  In  1810  two  hundred  tons 
of  cut  and  wrought  nails  were  made  here.  The  outi)Ut  of 
the  u-on  works  of  western  Pennsylvania  —  nails,  hinges, 
locks,  and  builders'  tools,  axes,  spades,  plows,  and  harrows 
for  field  work,  knives,  pots,  skillets,  and  spinning-wheel 
irons  for  household  use  —  were  shipped  down  the  Ohio  to 
the  settlements,  and  on  by  way  of  the  Mississippi  to  New 
Orleans.  Sugar  kettles  were  supplied  to  the  cane  planta- 
tions of  Louisiana  in  1804.  The  Pittsburg  ironmongers 
had  the  advantage  of  abundant  supplies  of  ore  and  charcoal 
m  the  immediate  vicinity,  and  could  easily  undersell  the 
wares  sent  overland  from  Philadelphia.  Iron  was  fast 
becoming  the  dominant  industry  of  Pennsylvania  east  and 
west,  and  by  1810  her  enterprising  manufacturers  furnished 
half  of  the  cast-iron  produced  in  the  United  States.  The 
state  then  boasted  forty-four  blast  furnaces,  seventy-eight 
forges,  eighteen  rolling  and  slitting  miUs,  and  one  hundred 
and  seventy  nail  factories  where  nails  and  brads  were  cut 
by  machinery. 

According  to  GaUatin's  Report  m  Manufactures,  the 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  18 12     189 

total  manufacturing  output  of  the  country  in  1810  was 
valued  at  $121,000,000.  In  manufactures  of  wood,  paper 
leather,  tallow,  spermaceti,  whale  oil,  and  molasses,  we 
were  producing  enough  to  supply  the  domestic  market, 
the  output  of  the  iron  works  was  sufficient  within  three 
thousand  tons,  while  the  tobacco  and  hat  manufacturers 
were  exporting  their  surplus  stocks.  According  to  Tench 
Coxe's  more  careful  estimate,  the  annual  value  of  our 
manufactures,  factory  and  domestic,  was  $198,000,000, 
of  which  four  fifths  was  produced  in  Pennsylvania,  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  Virginia,  and  Maryland. 

The  Effects  of  Peace.  —  British  statesmen  began  to 
reaUze  that  their  orders  in  Council,  coupled  with  the  con- 
sequent war,  had  rid  them  of  American  rivalry  on  the  sea, 
only  to  develop  domestic  manufactures  to  the  point  where 
the  United  States  would  soon  be  independent  of  Great 
Britain.  Cobbett,  the  economist,  declared,  ''We  have 
before  us  the  seeds  of  a  great  event,  —  nothing  less  than 
the  complete  and  absolute  independence  of  America  upon 
English  manufactitres."  A  Parhamentary  commission 
reported:  "It  clearly  appears  that  those  manufactures 
have  been  greatly  promoted  by  the  interruption  of  inter- 
course with  this  country,  and  that  unless  that  intercourse 
be  speedily  restored,  the  United  States  will  be  able  to  manu- 
facture for  their  own  consumption." 

The  conclusion  of  peace  threw  open  our  ports  once  more 
to  foreign  trade,  and  English  manufacturers,  eager  to 
regain  control,  of  the  lost  markets,  sent  in  shiploads  of 
cottons  and  woolens  and  iron  manufactures,  which  they 
offered  on  the  most  liberal  terms  to  their  agents  in  this 
country.  The  goods  were  taken  on  credit  and  disposed 
of  at  auction.  Lord  Brougham  justified  the  speculative 
character  of  this  trade  on  the  ground  that  "  it  was  well 
worth  while  to  incur  a  loss  upon  the  first  exportation,  in 
order  by  the  glut,  to  stifle  in  the  cradle  those  rising  manu- 
factures in  the  United  States  which  the  war  had  forced 
into  existence  contrary  to  the  natural  course  of  things." 
The  importations  of    1815   from  Great    Britain    alone 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
II,  425-431. 


Bishop, 
II,  146-160, 
212,  213. 

BoUes, 
II,  Bk.  II, 
Ch.  IV. 

Nile's 
Register, 
I,  164. 


Nile's 
Register, 
IV.  los. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 
U.S., 
Ch.  II. 

BoUes,  II, 
387-391. 

Hansard's 
Debates, 
First  Series, 
XXXIII, 

1099. 


Pitkin, 
Statistical 
View, 
261. 

Stanwood, 
I.  131-136. 


Michaux, 
199-206. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
n,  367,  46s  ; 
III,  32,  52, 
56,  452, 
454.  460. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
III,  168, 

440-444- 


190      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

amounted  to  $83,000,000,  and  those  of  1816  came  to  $155,- 
000,000.  American  woolen  mills  closed  down,  and  entrepre- 
neurs like  Scholfield  were  ruined.  The  price  of  wool  fell  in 
the  domestic  market,  the  surplus  wool  clip  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land, and  many  of  the  costly  merino  sheep  were  killed  for 
mutton  and  tallow.  The  iron  manufacturers  of  the  seaboard 
put  out  their  fires.  All  but  five  of  the  forty  plants  of  Mor- 
ris County,  New  Jersey,  were  prostrated,  the  works  were  sold 
at  auction,  and  the  employees  scattered.  Some  furnaces 
and  forges  were  kept  running  by  isolated  farmers,  but  the 
eastern  industry  as  a  whole  was  ruined.  The  iron  foundries 
of  Pittsburg  were  adequately  protected  by  the  expense  of 
transporring  these  bulky  goods  across  the  mountains, 
where  fifty  miles  of  land  carriage  cost  as  much  as  the  ocean 
freight  from  Sweden ;  but  the  bagging  industry  of  Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky,  was  unable  to  cope  with  English  competi- 
tion, for  imported  cotton  bagging  flooded  the  country 
at  prices  far  below  the  normal  cost  of  producrion. 

The  men  who  had  invested  their  capital  in  the  new 
industries  raised  an  outcry  against  this  destructive  com- 
petition.    Forty  memorials  from  as  many  infant  industries 
and  manufacturing  centers  were  sent  up  to  Congress  in  the 
session  of  1816-1817.    The  cotton  manufacturers  of  Massa- 
chusetts,  Connecdcut,   and  Pennsylvania  petitioned  for 
protection  against  the  low-priced  goods  from  England 
and  India;    the  paper  manufacturers  and  printers  pro- 
tested against  the  competition  of  Holland  and  France; 
the  sugar  planters  of  Louisiana,  the  cordage  manufacturers 
of  Massachusetts,  the  hat  makers  of  New  York,  the  gun- 
smiths of  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and  the  proprietors 
of  the  hemp  factories  of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  were  no 
less  insistent  on  protection.    The  merchants  of  New  York 
City  denounced  the  auctioneers  and  asked  that  a  10  per 
cent  tax  be  le\ded  on  such  sales.    The  Pittsburg  me- 
moriaHsts  complained  "  that  the  manufacture  of  cottons, 
woolens,  flint  glass,  and  the  finer  articles  of  iron  has  lately 
suffered  the  most  alarming  depression.     Some  branches 
which  have  been  several  years  in  operation  have  been 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  181 2      191 

destroyed  or  partially  suspended ;   and  others,  of  a  more 
recent  growth,  annihilated  before  they  were  completely 
m  operation.    The  tide  of  importation  has   inundated 
our  country  with  foreign  goods.     Some  of  the  most  valu- 
able and  enterprising  citizens  have  been  subject  to  enormous 
losses,    and   others   overwhelmed   with   bankruptcy   and 
ruin.  ...     In  the  United  States  we  have  the  knowledge 
of  the  labor-saving  machinery,  the  raw  material,  and  provi- 
sions cheaper  than  in  Britain ;  but  the  overgrown  capital 
of  the  British  manufacturer,  and  the  dexterity  acquired 
by  long  experience,  make  a  considerable  rime  and  heavy 
duries   necessary  for  our  protection.     We  have   beaten 
England  out  of  our  markets  in  hats,  boots,  and  all  manu- 
factures of  leather ;  we  are  very  much  her  superior  in  ship- 
bmlding;    these  are  all  the  work  of  the  hands,  where 
labor-saving  machinery  gives  no  aid ;   so  that  her  superi- 
ority over  us,  in  manufactures,  consists  more  in  the  ex- 
cellence and  nicety  of  the  labor-saving  machinery,  than 
in  the  wages  of  labor." 

The  diverse  interests  of  shipowners  and  purchasers 
were  likewise  represented.  The  merchants  of  Salem 
Philadelphia,  Baldmore,  and  Charleston  urged  the  re- 
duction of  the  war  dudes  in  the  interests  of  trade.  Virginia 
voicing  the  interests  of  consumers,  sent  up  five  peddons 
agamst  a  protecdve  tariff,  urging  that  war  prices,  double 
and  treble  normal  rates,  might  bring  high  profits  to  the 
manufacturer  and  to  the  producer  of  raw  materials,  but 
they  unposed  a  heavy  tax  on  the  outside  public 

The  Tariff  Act  of  1816.  —  DaUas,  then  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  submitted  to  Congress  (February  12,  1816) 
a  report  on  the  revision  of  the  war  tariff,  in  which  he  ad- 
vocated unreservedly  the  protecdon  of  domesdc  manu- 
factures. Domesdc  industries  he  classified  under  three 
heads.  First,  those  firmly  estabhshed  whose  products 
were  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  country,  such  as  carriages 
cabinet  wares,  cordage,  hats,  firearms,  window  glass, 
boots,  shoes,  and  paper ;  on  these,  the  Secretary  recom- 
mended duties  practically  prohibitory,  on  the  ground  that 


White, 
Memoir  of 
Slater, 
210,  211. 


Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

III.  463,  484, 
S18. 

Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

III.  447, 
458. 

Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

III,  85-^s. 

Belles, 

II,  Bk.  in, 

Ch.  III. 

McMaster, 

IV,  Ch.  J 
XXXI. 


Rabbeno, 
146-183. 
Stanwood, 
I,  137-157. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 

U.S., 
27-36. 

Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 
U.S., 
46-59. 


192      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

competition  among  domestic  producers  would  soon  lower 
prices.  Second,  the  infant  industries  not  yet  suf&ciently 
developed  to  supply  the  demand,  but  in  a  fair  way  to  do 
so,  such  as  cotton  and  woolen  manufactures  of  the  coarser 
grades,  iron,  tin,  and  brass  manufactures,  spirits,  ale,  and 
beer;  on  these,  protective  duties  were  proposed  in  the 
belief  that  the  ultimate  advantages  would  more  than  com- 
pensate the  consumer  for  the  temporary  advance  in  price. 
Third,  industries  in  which  this  country  was  still  heavily 
handicapped  by  lack  of  machinery  or  skilled  laborers, 
such  as  high-grade  cottons  and  woolens,  silks,  linens, 
musUns,  carpets,  hosiery,  hardware,  cutlery,  porcelain, 
flint  glass,  etc. ;  on  these,  duties  should  be  high  or  low  as 
the  interests  of  the  revenue  might  determine.  Duties, 
he  believed,  should  not  be  imposed  on  the  raw  materials 
of  the  manufacturers,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  ship- 
builders, "  which  latter  interest  must  be  respected  at  a 
time  when  the  equalization  of  duties  on  tonnage  and  mer- 
chandise will  probably  give  rise  to  an  interesting  competi- 
tion between  our  own  vessels  and  those  of  foreign  nations." 
In  the  bill  introduced  by  Lowndes  of  South  Carolina, 
30  per  cent  ad  valorem  was  proposed  on  commodities  of 
the  first  class,  25  per  cent  on  those  of  the  second,  while 
duties  on  the  revenue  list  ranged  from  7.5  per  cent  to  15 
and  30  per  cent.  At  the  suggestion  of  Francis  C.  Lowell, 
coarse  cottons  were  given  a  special  form  of  protection  in 
that  a  minimum  valuation  of  twenty-five  cents  a  yard 
was  set  upon  all  imported  goods.  The  effect  was  to 
exclude  the  cheaper  grades  hitherto  imported  from  India 
and,  as  the  Salem  memorial  pointed  out,  to  reduce  the 
East  India  trade  by  half.  The  ironmasters  secured  specific 
duties  of  forty-five  cents  per  hundredweight  on  hammered 
and  $1.50  per  hundredweight  on  rolled  iron,  and  from  three 
cents  to  five  cents  a  pound  on  tacks  and  nails,  while  an  ad 
valorem  duty  of  20  per  cent  was  levied  on  other  iron  manu- 
factures and  on  pig  iron,  the  output  of  the  farm  furnaces. 
The  measure  of  protection  secured  by  rolling  mills  and 
nail  factories  was  at  first  conceded  to  be  ample,  but  the 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  18 12     193 

tariff  proved  insufficient  to  shut  out  Swedish  and  English 
imports,  and  an  increase  was  granted  in  181S.     The  duty 
on  hammered  iron  was  then  raised  to  seventy-five  cents  per 
hundredweight,  and  that  on  pig  iron  to  fifty  cents  per  hun- 
dredweight.    The  war  duty  on  salt   (twenty  cents  per 
bushel)   was  condnued,   although  the  domestic  product, 
600,000  bushels  per  year,  was  far  short  of  the  demand,  and 
the  annual  importation  amounted  to  3,000,000  bushels.     It 
was  urged  that  the  sahne  springs  of  New  York,  Kentucky, 
and  Indiana  could  soon  supply  the  seaboard  market  if  an 
adequate  measure  of  protection  were  accorded.     Specific 
duties  of  ten  cents  and  fifteen  cents  per  gallon  were  laid 
on  ale  and  beer  in  the  interest  of  the  breweries,  but  more 
especially  to  increase  the  demand  for  rye,  bariey,  and  hops 
as  a  solace  to  the  producers  of  those  cereals.     The  high 
duties  levied  on  distilled  spirits  during  the  war  were  but 
little  reduced,  and  the  excess  of  from  four  cents  to  seven 
cents  levied  on  spirits  distilled  from  grain  was  maintained 
in  the  interest  of  corn  growers.     The  rum  interest,  so 
prominent  in  the  tariff  debates  of  the  first  decade  of  Con- 
gressional history,   was  less  influential   now.    The  war 
duty  on  molasses  was  cut  in  half ;  but  five  cents  per  gallon 
was  double  the  rate  imposed  in  1789,  and  this  tax  on  their 
raw  material  was  protested  in  a  petirion  sent  up  by  the 
rum  distillers  of  Boston  in  1820.     Speaking  for  a  '*  very 
old  manufacture,"  whose  plants  represented  an  investment 
of  $1,000,000,  and  in  the  interest  of  the  flagging  West 
India  trade,  they  deprecated  any  increase  of  the  duty. 
But  a  new  and  diverse  interest  had  arisen.     The  cane 
growers  of  Louisiana  asked  not  only  for  a  protective  duty 
on  molasses  but  on  sugar  as  well.     The  planters  had  built 
ninety-one  refineries  at  an  expense  of  $3,500,000,  and  were 
producing  $1,000,000  worth  of  sugar  annually,  and  they 
secured  consideration.     The  war  dudes  on  the  various 
grades  of  sugar  were  reduced  only  one  third.    The  tax  on 
refined  sugar  held  at  twelve  cents  a  pound  undl  1842. 

Clash  of  Sectionai  Interests.  —  The  stronghold  of  the 
campaign  for  protecdon  was  in  the  Middle  and  Western 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions, 24. 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
HI,  522. 

Bishop, 
II,  161. 


Bolle?, 

II.  363,  367. 

394- 


Dewey, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Stanwood, 
I,  Ch.  VI. 


I  ' 


Phillips,  II, 
330^343. 


BoUes, 
II,  Bk.  m, 

Ch.  rv 


194      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

states.  The  manufacturers  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Pennsylvania  were  supported  by  the  farmers  of  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  whose  wool,  hemp,  and  flax 
brought  better  prices  in  a  protected  market,  and  by  the 
planters  of  Louisiana,  who,  handicapped  by  disadvantages 
of  soil  and  cUmate,  could  not  compete  with  the  sugar 
growers  of  Cuba  and  Jamaica  unless  protected  by  a  tariff 
wall.  In  New  England  there  was  a  conflict  of  interests. 
Conservative  men  were  attached  to  the  accustomed  chan- 
nels of  commerce,  and  these  were  menaced  by  the  pro- 
tective policy.  The  effect  of  high  duties  was  to  diminish 
the  volume  of  trade,  increase  the  cost  of  shipbuilding,  and 
raise  the  price  of  raw  materials  for  rum,  cordage,  and  other 
established  manufactures.  The  textile  interests,  on  the 
other  hand,  favored  high  duties,  and  by  1820  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut  had  come  over  to  the  protectionist  camp. 
Meantime,  Southern  statesmen  had  announced  themselves 
squarely  against  protection.  It  had  become  evident  that, 
spite  of  great  natural  advantages,  cotton  manufactures 
could  not  be  prosecuted  in  the  Southern  states  because 
of  the  inefficiency  of  slave  labor.  Import  duties  tended 
to  enhance  the  price  of  all  they  bought  and  lower  the  i)rice 
of  everything  they  had  to  sell.  The  price  of  raw  cotton 
had  risen  to  twenty-nine  and  a  half  cents  immediately  after 
the  Peace,  but  was  soon  to  fall  because  of  the  discriminating 
duties  levied  by  Parliament  on  American  cotton.  The 
British  duty  of  6  per  cent  ad  valorem  imposed  in  1820 
was  raised  to  $7.25  per  bale  in  18  51.  Since  our  normal 
crop  was  more  than  sufficient  to  supply  the  domestic 
demand,  the  surplus  must  be  exported  to  an  unfriendly 
market.  The  price  dropped  from  thirty-two  cents  per 
pound  in  1818  to  seventeen  and  a  half  cents  in  1820  and 
nine  and  a  half  cents  in  1827.  Our  import  duty  of  three 
cents  a  pound  levied  in  1791  was  continued  until  1846, 
but  it  had  ceased  to  have  any  effect. 

The  Tariff  Act  of  1824  was  carried  by  the  votes  of  the 
Middle  and  Western  states.  The  special  advocate  of 
protection  was  Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky,  "  the  father  of 


-I 


Horse-power  Crusher— Early  Sugar  Mill 


Open-air  Boiler 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     195 

the  American  system."  The  argument  of  Randolph  in 
behalf  of  the  consumer  and  that  of  Webster  in  behalf  of 
the  shipping  interest  could  not  avail  against  the  influence 
brought  to  bear  by  the  Eastern  manufacturers  and  the 
Western  farmers.  Increased  duties  were  imposed  on  wool 
and  woolens,  hemp  and  cotton  bagging,  pig  iron  and  iron 
manufactures.  It  was  intended  that  the  duties  on  raw 
materials  should  in  each  case  be  offset  by  a  compensating 
duty  on  the  corresponding  manufacture.  The  25  per  cent 
rate  on  imported  cottons  was  not  increased,  but  the  mini- 
mum valuation  was  raised  from  twenty-five  cents  to  thirty- 
five  cents,  thus  excluding  higher  grades  of  cloth.  Coarse 
cottons  were  now  manufactured  in  New  England  as  cheaply 
as  in  the  old  country,  and  under  the  combined  influence 
of  cheap  raw  material  and  improved  machinery,  the  cost  of 
production  had  diminished  until  our  cotton  manufacturers 
were  able  to  sell  at  English  prices.  The  goods  from  the 
Waltham  mill  that  had  been  sold  for  thirty  cents  a  yard  in 
1 8 16  brought  but  twenty-one  cents  in  18 19,  thirteen  cents 
in  1826,  eight  and  a  half  in  1829,  and  six  and  a  half  cents 
in  1843.  Domestic  competition  served  to  reduce  prices 
within  the  protected  area  exactly  as  Hamilton  and  Dallas 
had  foreseen. 

The  Tariff  Act  of  1828.  —  In  1824  Parliament  repealed 
the  import  duties  on  wool,  and  the  price  of  this  important 
raw  material  in  the  British  market  dropped  from  is.  to  i^. 
a  pound.  The  English  cost  of  production  was  correspond- 
ingly reduced,  and  American  woolen  manufacturers  peti- 
tioned for  more  effective  protection.  Massachusetts,  con- 
vinced at  last  that  protection  of  manufactures  was  the 
settled  poUcy  of  the  country,  led  in  this  agitation.  A 
meeting  of  manufacturers  held  in  Boston  voiced  the  de- 
mands of  the  woolen  interest ;  their  raw  materials,  not  only 
wool  but  castile  soap  and  olive  oil,  were  50  per  cent  dearer 
than  English  prices,  and  compensating  protection  must 
be  given  their  finished  product.  The  General  Court 
passed  favorable  resolutions,  while  Webster  and  all  but 
one  of  the  Bay  State  congressmen  advocated  a  minimum 


Taussig, 
State  Papers, 
and  Speeches 
on  the 
Tariff, 
25-2-385. 

Clay,  Life 
and  Speeches, 
11, 1-55. 
Stan  wood, 
I,  Ch.  VII. 


Wages  and 

Prices, 

1752-1860. 


Wu*^ 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist. 
U.S.,  37-\ 
45,  68-108. 

Bischoff, 
Woolen 
Manu- 
factures, II, 
Ch,  I,  II. 

BoUes,  II, 
393-409- 

Stanwood, 
I.  Ch.  VUL 


I 


I 


h 


I « 


196      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

valuation  clause  in  the  woolen  schedule.  A  national  con- 
vention was  assembled  at  Harrisburg,  Pennsylvania,  which 
urged  the  protection  of  other  industries,  while  the  congres- 
sional committee  on  manufactures  summoned  business 
men  representing  the  different  manufacturing  interests  to 
testify  as  to  the  nature  and  degree  of  protection  re- 
quired. 

^       Pontics  played  so  large  a  part  in  the  tariff  legislation  of 
1828  that  the  result  was  satisfactory  to  no  section  of  the 
country  except  the  Middle  West.     Duties  on  pig  iron, 
wool,  and  hemp  were  raised  to  prohibitory  rates,   and 
\  flax  was,  for  the  first  time,  placed  on  the  protected  list. 

\    !    The  compensating  duties  on  iron  manufactures,  woolrms, 
and  cordage  were  not  high  enough  to  offset  the  increased 
cost  of  production.     The  rum  distillers   were  outraged 
by  the  raising  of  the  import  duty  on  molasses  to  ten  cents 
a  gallon  and  the  withholding  of  the  drawback  previously 
allowed.     The   shipbuilders   were   jeopardized   by   heavy 
duties  on  chains  and  anchors,  sail  duck,  and  cordage,  and 
the  drawback  on  sail  duck  purchased  for  the  use  of  Ameri- 
can vessels  was  disallowed.     These  duties  involved   the 
addition  of  $6.25  per  ton  to  the  cost  of  every  ship  built 
in  the  United  States.     Serious  as  were  the  burdens  im- 
posed on  New  England  industries  by  this  "  tariff  of  abomi- 
nations,"  it   bore  even  more   hsavily   upon  the   Scmth. 
The  prohibitory  duties  on  the  coarse  cottons  and  woolens 
with  which  the  slaves  were  clothed,  on  sugar,  salt,  and  iron 
manufactures,  gave  the  planters  no  choice  but  to  buy  of  do- 
mestic producers  at  prices  averaging  40  per  cent  higher  than 
in  foreign  markets.     The  cotton  crop  of  183 1  was  nearly 
treble  that  of  1815,  but  the  price  in  the  American  market 
was  one  half,  in  the  English  market  one  fourth,  of  that 
prevailing  in  the  year  after  the  war.     The  tariff  was  for- 
Taussig,         "^^lly  protested    as   sectional    legislation   and    therefore 
State  Papers,  unconstitutional  by  Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Alabama, 
S^cheson     Y^^ginia,  and  North  CaroUna  in  1829,  and  an  anti-protec- 
the  Tariff,       tion  Convention  was  held  at  Augusta,  Georgia.     In  the 
108-213.         same  year  a  free-trade  convention  was  held  at  Philadel- 


"I 


i 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  1812     197 


I,  Ch.  X. 


phia  and  a  memorial  addressed  to  Congress,  in  which  the 
views  of  the  anti-tariff  men  were  ably  rehearsed  by  Albert 
Gallatin. 

In  the  Tariff  Act  of  1832  New  England's  interests  Bolles, 
were  reconciled  by  reduction  of  the  rates  on  low-grade  iJ.Bk.  ni, 
wools,  hemp,  pig  and  bar  iron,  and  molasses,  and  by  a 
slight  increase  in  duty  on  woolen  cloth.  Flax  was  restored 
to  the  free  list,  and  the  accustomed  drawbacks  on  rum  and  J^^J^^* 
sailcloth  were  again  allowed.  Some  attempt  was  made  ^^  ^ 
to  propitiate  the  South  by  a  duty  of  15  per  cent  on  leaf 
tobacco  and  by  revival  of  the  war  duty  of  fifty  cents  a  pound 
on  indigo  ;  but  protective  duties  failed  to  raise  the  price  of 
either  product  for  the  same  reason  that  the  price  of  cotton 
had  not  been  advanced  by  the  three  cents  per  pound  tax. 
The  duty  on  salt  was  lowered  from  twenty  cents  to  fifteen 
cents  a  bushel,  but  since  the  selling  price,  fifty  cents  a  bushel, 
was  still  four  times  the  cost  of  production,  consumers  were 
not  reconciled.  A  states  rights  and  free-trade  convention, 
held  at  Charleston  in  July,  declared  that  the  protective 
policy  meant  "  a  steady  chscrimination  of  50  per  cent  on 
southern  and  a  bounty  of  50  per  cent  on  northern  industry." 
In  November  following,  the  recently  enacted  tariff  was 
declared  null  and  void  within  the  state  of  South  Carolina, 
and  steps  were  taken  to  prevent  the  collection  of  duties 
at  the  ports.  The  convention  stated  the  tariff  policy  of 
South  Carolina  in  unmistakable  terms :  "  The  whole  list 
of  protected  articles  should  be  admitted  free  of  all  duty, 
the  revenue  being  derived  from  imposts  on  non-competing 
articles  only." 

Armed  conflict  was  averted  by  concessions  on  both  sides. 
The  Compromise  Tariff  of  1833  gave  "  a  lease  of  nine  years 
to  protection  "  ;  the  obnoxious  duties  were  to  be  gradually 
scaled  down  by  one  tenth  of  the  excess  each  year,  until, 
in  1842,  a  horizontal  rate  of  20  per  cent  ad  valorem  should 
h\i  attained.  In  order  that  the  redundant  revenues  might 
be  decreased,  coffee,  tea,  spices,  and  linens  were  placed  on 
the  free  list,  but  none  of  the  raw  materials  produced  by 
the  Western  farmers  were  so  listed. 


Bolles, 
II,  Bk.  Ill, 
Ch.n. 

Dewey, 
144-168. 

Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
61-154. 

Holmes, 

U.S.A., 

211-215. 


Bullock, 
74-78. 


Hildreth, 

III,  466,  535 

IV,  25  ; 

V,  415. 


McMaster, 
IV,  Ch. 
XXX, 
XXXVI. 


198      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Financial  Difficulties 

The  failure  of  Congress  to  recharter  the  national  bank 
had  greatly  embarrassed  the  government  in  the  financing 
of  the  war  and  deprived  the  country  of  its  most  reliable 
currency     Five  milUon  dollars  in   national  bank  notes 
were    withdrawn    from    circulation.     The    $7,000,000   in 
specie  that  had  been  contributed  by  foreign  stockholders 
was  sent  back  to  Europe,  and  the  coin  remaining  in  the 
country  was  thereafter  withheld  from  circulation      This 
was  the  opportunity  for  which  the  private  banks  had  con- 
tended.    Hundreds  of  joint  stock  companies  immediately 
secured  charters  from  the  state  governments  and  proceeded 
to  issue  notes  with  no  adequate  provision  for  redemption. 
The  older  and  wealthier  sections  of  the  country  had  lea  rned 
the  lessons  of  depreciation  and   undertook  to   avert   the 
disasters  consequent  on  excessive  issue  of  credit  money. 
The  banks  of  Massachusetts  and  of  New  York  were  re- 
stncted  as  to  the  proportion  between  issues  and  assets 
and  were   managed  on  sound  business  principles.     In  the 
rw.  1       .u     u^  ^'^''^^''  ^^"'"  ^^"^  ^^s  abundant  but 

.  stil  hankered  for  cheap  money  and  i)lenty  of  it,  and  the 
state  authorities  and  the  bankers  sympathized  with  this 
predilection.    Between    1811    and    1816   the   number   of 

frJ^%     ''''''  ""^^  '''^^"^'  ^'^^  "^^  circulation  increased 
from  $45,000,000  to  $100,000,000.     But  the  purchasing 

power  of  the  notes  declined  with  increased  issues.     The 
notes  of  the  Washington  and  Baldmore  banks  were  22 
?r  ^^f  ,,^^^^^  P^^>  those  of  Philadelphia  18  per  cent 
those  of  New  York  10  per  cent.     Finally,  in  1814,  all  the 
banks  outside  of  Massachusetts  suspended  spede  pay! 

Z^l'  J^'Z'  ^^^"'  ^^  ^"^  ^^^^^"^'  ^^d  from  Phila- 
delphia to  Missouri,  these  "  wild-cat  "  banks  decHned  to 
redeem  their  notes,  and  the  government  itself  could  not 
requirj  specie  in  payment  of  taxes.  Business  men  began 
to  petition  for  a  national  bank  of  issue 
The  Second  National  Bank. -The  Secretary  of  the 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812     199 

Treasury  urged  upon  Congress  the  necessity  of  recourse 
to  a  national  bank  as  the  only  means  of  enabHng  the  gov- 
ernment to  meet  its  obligations,  provide  the  country  with 
a  stable  currency,  and  force  the  state  banks  to  resume 
specie  payment.  Dallas'  measure  was  deferred  until  1816, 
when  a  bank  was  chartered  upon  substantially  Hamilton's 
plan,  but  on  a  scale  befitting  the  expansion  of  business 
in  the  twenty-five  years'  interval.  The  capital  stock  was 
$35,000,000,  of  which  $7,000,000  was  to  be  subscribed  by 
the  government  and  $28,000,000  by  private  parties. 
Three  fourths  of  the  private  subscription  was  to  be  in 
government  bonds  and  one  fourth  in  specie.  The  bank 
was  authorized  to  issue  convertible  notes  to  the  full  amount 
of  its  capital,  and  national  bank  currency,  though  not 
legal  tender,  was  receivable  at  par  in  all  payments  to  the 
United  States  Treasuty.  Five  of  the  twenty-five  directors 
were  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  Congress  was  empowered  to  order  an  inspection  of  the 
bank  management  whenever  it  fell  under  suspicion.  The 
central  bank  was  opened  at  Philadelphia  in  January,  181 7, 
and  twenty-five  branches  were  estabhshed  in  other  busi- 
ness centers. 

The  successes  of  the  first  national  bank  were  repeated 
only  in  part.  The  extraordinar>^  demand  for  government 
bonds  brought  this  paper  up  to  par  and  relieved  the 
Treasury  of  serious  embarrassment.  The  national  bank 
notes  proved  a  welcome  addition  to  the  currency,  especially 
in  the  South,  where  there  was  no  specie  and  where  the  local 
issues  were  thoroughly  discredited ;  but  the  task  of  forcing 
the  state  banks  back  to  a  specie  basis  proved  too  great  for 
an  institution  organized  with  undue  haste  and  financed 
with  criminal  tolerance.  The  business  was  mismanaged 
from  the  start.  Of  the  $7,000,000  specie  required  in  the 
charter,  but  $2,000,000  was  actually  contributed,  and  of 
the  $21,000,000  bond  subscriptions,  but  $9,000,000  was 
made  good  in  government  bonds,  the  personal  notes 
of  subscribers  being  accepted  in  lieu  of  the  stipulated 
I)ayment.     Undeterred  by  the   fact  that  a  considerable 


Am.  State 

Papers, 

Finance, 

II,  872 ; 

III,  57-61. 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue,  340- 
357- 


Am.  State 
Papers, 
Finance, 
in,  306-391 


Carey, 
The  Crisis. 

Turner, 
New  West, 
Ch.IX. 


FUnt, 
Recollec- 
tions, 
212-213. 

Dwight, 
I,  218-222. 


Conant, 
Banks   of 
Issue, 
617-618. 


200      hidustnal  History  of  the  United  States 

portion  of  its  capital  stock  was  but  dubious  assets,  the 
management  awarded  dividends  to  subscribers  whose 
stock  was  not  paid  in,  loaned  freely  and  with  inadecjuate 
security  to  the  struggUng  state  banks,  discounted  heavily 
the  business  paper  presented  by  stockholders,  and  issued 
currency  in  excess  of  the  normal  iinancial  needs  of  the 
country. 

Unwarranted  accommodations  and  speculation  brought 
the  institution  to  the  verge  of  bankruptcy  in  1818,  when 
the  Baltimore  branch  failed  for  $3,000,000.  An  investi- 
gation of  its  affairs  was  ordered  by  Congress  and  a  vigor- 
ous reform  prescribed.  The  original  management  ^as  ob- 
liged to  resign,  Langdon  Cheves  of  Charleston  was  elected 
president,  and  under  his  conservative  administration  the 
National  Bank  retrieved  its  financial  standing.  But  a 
reform  administration  could  not  avert  the  business  crisis 
which  years  of  speculation  and  wild-cat  banking  hud  en- 
gendered. The  sudden  contraction  of  credit,  following 
upon  a  period  of  reckless  financiering,  jeopardized  banks 
and  business  enterprises  everywhere  outside  of  New 
England. 

The  Crisis  of  1819.  —  Not  the  banks  only,  but  business 
men  of  all  classes  had  been  mortgaging  the  future  beyond 
warrant.  Manufacturers,  encouraged  by  the  prospect  of 
adequate  protection,  enlarged  their  plants  and  doubled 
their  output.  Land  companies  invested  borrowed  money 
in  property  that  could  not  be  sold  at  a  profit,  and  farmers 
mortgaged  their  lands  for  the  wherewithal  to  make  im- 
provements. Large  sums  were  sunk  in  canals  and  post 
roads  that  could  not  pay  dividends  on  the  investment, 
much  less  make  good  the  obUgations  incurred.  Con- 
fidence in  the  resources  of  the  country  and  its  ultimate 
prosperity  led  men  to  anticipate  industrial  development 
by  a  generation  and  to  risk  too  much  upon  the  immc^diate 
future. 

The  contraction  of  the  currency  from  $110,000,000  in 
1816  to  $65,000,000  in  1819,  and  the  refusal  of  the  National 
Bank  to  discount  any  but  well-secured  paper,  called  a 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812 


201 


sudden  halt  in  this  mad  career  of  speculation.     Hundreds 
of  business  enterprises  were  prostrated,  and  thousands  of 
apparently   prosperous   men   were   ruined.    The   closing 
of  factories  threw  workmen  out  of  employment,  and  the 
streets  of  PhHadelphia,  Baltimore,  New  York,  Pittsburg,   Wages  and 
and  many  lesser  manufacturing  and  commercial  centers  ^"'^^s- 
were  thronged  with  desdtute  men  and  women  seeking  ''^^"''*^- 
work.    Prices  fell,  and  the  value  of  real  estate  shrank  to 
one  third  the  level  of  the  speculative  period. 

In  the  Mississippi  Valley  the  speculative  demand  for     - 
money  had  been  even  greater  than  in  the  East.     Virgin 
soil  and  Hmitiess  possibilities  in  the  way  of  development  Holmes, 
created  a  reckless  system  of  financiering  that  brooked  211-215. 
no  restraint.     Silver  sufficient  to  serve  as  the  medium  of 
exchange  came  into  the  country  through  the  New  Orieans 
trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  Mexico,  but  the  demand 
for  capital  with  which  to  develop  the  country  could  only 
be  met  by  credit  agencies.     In  1817-1818    forty  banks 
of  issue  had  been  chartered  in  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee 
and  Ohio  hastened  to  adopt  the  same  alluring  expedient.   FUnt, 
The  banks  issued  money  without  stint  and  loaned  to  betters  from 
speculators  on  easy  terms.    Prices  rose,  and  though  the  ^!x"? 
silver  went  over  the  mountains  to  New  York  and  Phila-  238,  274. 
delphia,  the  Mississippi  Valley  seemed  to  be  in  the  heyday   ''^^' 
of  prosperity.    Then  suddenly,  in  1819,  the  National  Bank 
presented  an  accumulation  of  notes  for  redemption ;    the 
state  banks,  unable  to  meet  their  obligations,  were  forced 
to  suspend  specie  payment,  and  the  boom  collapsed.     To 
mitigate  the  general  distress  the  state  legislatures  passed 
.relief  laws,  staying  proceedings  against  debtors.     Kentucky 
undertook  to  meet  the  situation  by  establishing  the  Bank 
of  the  Commonwealth,  authorized  to  issue  notes  on  the 
basis  of  the  state  revenues  and  to  loan  the  same  to  needy 
•persons  on  land  security,  but  the  remedy  was  worse  than  the 
disease.     In  1822  the  notes  of  the  bank  were  worth  fifty 
cents  on  a  dollar,  and  its  beneficiaries  were  owned.     The 
farmers  lost  their  land  and  left  the  state  by  hundreds 
and  thousands,  and   business   men  were  put   to    every 


Ill' 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
130-131. 


r 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
133- 


I 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
235. 


202       Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

expedient  to  provide  money  for  cash  payments.  A  Scotch 
traveler  described  the  situation  as  follows :  "  In  this  western 
country  there  is  a  great  diversity  of  paper  money.  Small 
bills  are  in  circulation  of  a  half,  a  fourth,  an  eighth,  and 
even  the  sixteenth  of  a  dollar.  These  small  rags  are  not 
current  at  a  great  distance  from  the  places  of  their  nativity. 
A  considerable  portion  of  the  httle  specie  to  be  seen  is 
of  what  is  called  cut  money,  —  dollars  cut  int  o  two,  four, 
eight  or  sixteen  pieces.  This  practice  prevents  much 
money  from  being  received  in  banks,  or  sent  out  of  the 
country  in  the  character  of  coin,  and  would  be  highly 
commendable  were  it  not  for  the  frauds  committed  by 
those  who  clip  the  pieces  in  reserving  a  part  of  the  metal 
for  themselves.  ..."    Again,  writing  of  Cincinnati :  — 

"There  is  here  much  trouble  with  paper  money.  The 
notes  current  in  one  part,  are  either  refused,  or  taken  at 
a  large  discount,  in  another.  Banks  that  were  creditable 
a  few  days  ago,  have  refused  to  redeem  their  paj^er  in  specie, 
or  in  notes  of  the  United  States'  Bank.  .  .  .  The  cremation 
of  this  vast  host  of  fabricators,  and  venders  of  b;ise  money, 
must  form  a  memorable  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  country. 
These  craftsmen  have  greatly  increased  the  money  capital 
of  the  nation;  and  have,  in  a  corresponding  degree,  en- 
hanced the  nominal  value  of  property  and  labor.  By 
lending,  and  otherwise  emitting,  their  engravings,  they 
have  contrived  to  mortgage  and  buy  much  of  the  property 
of  their  neighbors,  and  to  appropriate  to'  thtmiselves  the 
labor  of  less  moneyed  citizens.  Proceeding  in  this  manner, 
they  cannot  retain  specie  enough  to  redeem  their  bills, 
admitting  the  gratuitous  assumption  that  they  were  once 
possessed  of  it.  They  seem  to  have  calculated  that  the 
whole  of  their  paper  would  not  return  on  them  in  one  day. 
Small  quantities,  however,  of  it  have,  on  various  occasions, 
been  sufficient  to  cause  them  to  suspend  specie  payments. 

"  The  money  in  circulation  is  puzzling  to  traders,  and 
more  particularly  to  strangers ;  for  besides  the  multipUcity 
of  banks,  and  the  diversity  in  supposed  value,  fluctuations 
are  so  frequent,  and  so  great,  that  no  man  who  holds  it 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the    War  of  1812     203 

in  his  possession  can  be  safe  for  a  day.  The  merchant, 
when  asked  the  price  of  an  article,  instead  of  making  a 
direct  answer,  usually  puts  the  question,  '  What  sort  of 
money  have  you  got  ?  '  Supposing  that  a  number  of 
bills  are  shown,  and  one  or  more  are  accepted  of,  it  is  not 
till  then,  that  the  price  of  the  goods  is  declared ;  and  an 
additional  price  is  uniformly  laid  on,  to  compensate  for 
the  supposed  defect  in  the  quahty  of  the  money." 

Land  Speculation 

Contemporary  Americans,  both  east  and  west  of  the 
Alleghanies,  were  possessed  with  a  mania  for  the  unex- 
ploited  soils  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Large  tracts  were 
to  be  had  of  the  land  ofl&ces  at  wholesale  prices,  and  these 
were  bought  up  by  men  of  means  or  influence  and  retailed 
to  would-be  farmers  at  suflicient  advance  to  realize  a  con- 
siderable profit.  The  sales  were  made  on  credit,  but  the 
land  was  usually  mortgaged  to  the  full  amount  of  the  de- 
ferred obUgation  so  that  ultimate  returns  were  guaranteed, 
provided  the  tract  was  so  situated  as  to  be  readily  salable. 

The  Emigrants.  —  No  less  speculative  were  the  ventures 
of  the  men  and  women  who  had  nothing  to  risk  but  their 
lives.  Forbes's  Road  was  the  usual  route  across  the 
Alleghanies,  although  the  new  Cumberland  Road  was 
shorter.  People  of  means  traveled  in  the  stage  coaches, 
paying  a  round  price  for  transportation  and  luggage. 
Single  men  might  ride  horseback  at  less  cost.  Families 
found  cheaper  and  more  commodious  accommodations 
in  a  Conestoga  wagon,  purchased  at  Philadelphia  to  be 
sold  at  half  price  in  Pittsburg,  or,  if  their  destination  lay 
not  far  beyond,  to  be  driven  on  for  farm  use.  Every 
variety  of  vehicle,  and  all  types  of  people,  were  making 
their  toilsome  way  along  the  rough  miHtary  road.  "  The 
father  may  be  seen  driving  the  waggon,  and  the  women 
and  children  bringing  up  two  or  three  cows  in  the  rear. 
They  carry  their  provisions  along  with  them,  and  wrap 
themselves  in  blankets,  and  sleep  on  the  floors  of  taverns  " 


Clay,  Rept. 
on  Public 
Lands,  1832. 

Life  and 
Speeches, 
II,  70-76. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
64-82. »' 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
97- 


!" 


I 


204      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


>«*MAT  «  CU.,N.T. 


Disx&iBuxioN  OF  Population,  iS^o 


Industrial  Consequences  of  the   War  of  18 12     205 

at  a  charge  of  twenty-five  cents  per  family.  Other  pioneers 
without  the  wherewithal  to  purchase  a  wagon  walked  the 
whole  distance,  dragging  their  effects  in  a  one-horse  cart 
or  pushing  them  along  in  a  wheelbarrow.  Many  of  the 
keelboats  that  floated  down  the  Ohio  carried  an  entire 
family  and  all  their  earthly  possessions,  household  goods, 
farm  tools,  cattle,  and  horses.  They  landed  where  chance 
or  caprice  might  determine,  on  the  Kentucky  or  Illinois 
bank,  or  if  the  current  favored,  pushed  on  to  the  Mississippi 
or  to  the  Missouri.  It  was  a  veritable  race  migration, 
impelled  by  the  love  of  adventure,  by  land  hunger,  by 
the  gambUng  instinct  of  the  frontier. 

To  Old  World  peasants,  the  opportunity  to  purchase 
new  land  at  a  nominal  price  and  to  cultivate  it  on  their 
own  account,  unvexed  by  rentals,  tithes,  or  poor-rates, 
seemed  the  open  door  to  fortune.     They  seldom  reckoned 
on  the  costs  and  hazards  of  the  journey  —  the  inevitable 
hardships  of  frontier  life,  the  heavy  labor  necessary  to 
clear  the  forest,  plow  the   untamed  soil,  build  houses, 
barns,  fences,  and  roads,  the  insidious  poison  of  the  omni- 
present malaria.     Many  succeeded  far  beyond  any  possi- 
bility that  the  fatherland  could  offer  them ;  but  many  who 
had  set  out  with  the  highest  hopes  were  soon  overwhelmed 
by  illness  or  debt,  and  perished  miserably,  or  made  their 
painful  way  back  to  the  seaboard,  bitterly  lamenting  the 
hardihood  that  had  led  them  to  trust  their  fortunes   to 
the  glowing  misrepresentations  of  a  land  syndicate.     The 
vikings  of  this  migration  were  the  Kentuckians,  the  sons 
of  the  Virginians  and  Carolinians  who  had  followed  Boone 
across  Cumberland  Gap.     Inured  to  hardship,  impatient 
of  the  restraints  of  civilization,  they  bartered  their  chances 
in  the  "  settlements  "  for  a  stake  in  the  wilderness,  and 
pressed  to  the  West,  where  land  was  still  abundant  and 
cheap.     Inspired  by  the  restless  energy  of  their  ancestors, 
the  Kentuckians  were  always  on  the  move.     They  pined 
for  elbow-room  and  deemed  neighbors  less  desirable  than 
freedom  to  trap,  to  hunt,  to  pasture  their  cattle  in  the  open. 
To  a  New  England  observer  this  migratory  habit  seemed 


Michaux, 
188-194. 


Birbeck, 
60-62. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
287. 


Flint,  Rec- 
ollections of 
Last  Ten 
Years, 
72-73. 


Birbeck, 
120-126, 
154-155- 


p 


I 


Flint, 

Recollections 
of  Ten 
Years, 

73. 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America, 
232-236. 


FUnt, 

Recollections 
of  Ten 
Years,  9. 


Birbeck, 
34.  63. 


Weld, 
230-234- 
Michaux, 
69-71,  152, 
183-185. 

FUnt, 

Recollections 
of  Ten  Years, 
236-237- 
Martineau, 
I,  297-299- 


206      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

to  jeopardize  everything  which  the  normal  man  held  dear. 
"  The  present  occupants  sell,  pack  up,  depart.     Strangers 
replace  them.     Before  they  have   gained  the  confidence 
of  their  [new]  neighbors,  they  hear  of  a  better  place,  pack 
up  and  follow  their  precursors."     The  deserted  homes  were 
purchased  by  men  of  more  means  and  soberer  habits,  men 
who    set    about    building    substantial    houses,    planting 
orchards,  organizing  schools  and  churches,  and  promoting 
transportation  faciUties  that  should  convey  their  jiroduce 
to  market.     These  were  the  farmers  and  planters  who 
sent  boatloads  of   wheat,  bacon,  whisky,  and  salt  down 
to  New  Orleans  and  the  Caribbean  islands  or  disi3atched 
droves  of  cattle  and  hogs  "  back  east "  along  thci  Penn- 
sylvania Road  to  be  fattened  for  the  Philadelphia  abattoirs. 
Even  more  staid  and  prosperous  were  the  little  German 
communities  located  with  careful  foresight  on  the  most 
fertile  soil  and  within  easy  reach  of  a  good  waterway. 
Here  industry  and  contentment,   a  predilection  for  the 
German  tongue  and  for  a  specie  currency,  reproduced 
the   conditions   of     the   fatherland.      Travelers    such   as 
Weld,  Timothy  Flint,  Michaux,  father    and    son,    and 
Harriet  Martineau  all  testify  that   the   most  promising 
of  the  pioneers  were  the  Germans ;   next  in  capacity  for 
transforming  the  forest  into  productive  farmland  came  the 
Anglo-Americans,  then  the  Scotch-Irish,  and  then  the  Eng- 
Hsh,  and  that  the  least  likely  to  succeed  in  the   task  of 
civilization  were  the  men  of  French  blood,  whether  the 
half  Indian  habitants  of  Vincennes  and  Cahokia  or   the 
newly  imported  Parisians  of  GallipoUs. 


CHAPTER  VII 

INDUSTRIAL  EXPANSION  AND  THE  CRISIS  OF 

1837 

Speculative  Investment 

Our  second  war  of  independence  at  an  end,  the  nation 
was  blessed  by  thirty  years  of  peace.  Party  strife,  which 
had  well-mgh  brought  about  the  secession  of  New  England 
m  1816,  died  down  into  the  -  era  of  good  feeUng  "  The 
vexed  problems,  political  and  economic,  that  had  agitated 
the  admimstrations  of  Washington  and  Adams,  Jefferson 
and  Madison,  were  solved  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  new 
generation  of  statesmen :  protection  to  manufactures 
treedom  of  commerce,  state  regulation  of  slavery,  banking' 
and  internal  improvements.  Men  were  free  at  last  to 
devote  their  energies  to  the  material  development  of  the 
country. 

Manufactures.  -  The  series  of  high  tariffs  enacted 
during  and  after  the  war  gave  American  manufacturers  two 
decades  of  protection,  and  they  made  good  use  of  their 
monopoly  of  domestic  markets.  Under  the  stimulus  of 
the  paterit  law,  mechanical  improvements  were  being 
mtroduced  mto  every  branch  of  manufacture.  With  in- 
creasing capital,  labor-saving  machinery,  and  the  skillful 
adaptation  of  water  and  steam  power,  the  factory  era  was 

well  .  f  KiT:,''"'*  '°"°"'  ^°°'""'  ^"'l  i^""^  manufactures 
were  established  on  an  assured  basis 

meI5ttr'''"5  °^  ''uT'  '"  ^""°"^  ^nd  workshops 

r  Mpw  F  P,    T^}"  °^  ^"  "'''^"  population.     Wherever 

urnSd      f  "^'   ^'"   '^°'"'^'°^  Pennsylvania,  a   river 

furnished  wateipower  or   cheap  transportation,  the   op- 


m 


i 


Chevalier, 

United 

States, 

128-133, 

137-144- 


208      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

portunity  was  utilized  to  the  utmost,  and  factory  towns 
sprang  into  existence  overnight.  In  1810  there  were  only 
sixteen  towns  that  boasted  more  than  three  thousand  in- 
habitants, and  these  were  seaports  such  as  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore  ;  or,  like  Albany,  Pitts- 
burg, New  Orleans,  and  Richmond,  owed  their  prosperity 
to  some  navigable  river.  The  census  of  1840  rejiorted 
forty- two  towns  having  a  population  of  more  than  three 
thousand,  and  fully  half  of  these,  such  as  Lowell  and 
Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  Paterson  and  Newark,  New 
Jersey,  Syracuse,  New  York,  and  Reading,  Pennsylvania, 
had  their  origin  not  in  commerce  but  in  manufactures. 
The  towns  grew  at  the  expense  of  the  rural  districts, 
especially  in  the  North  Atlantic  states,  where  all  the  good 
land  had  long  since  been  taken  up,  and  where  cultivation 
was  already  yielding  diminishing  returns.  The  ambitious 
young  men  sought  employment  in  the  cities,  and  the 
farmers'  daughters  flocked  to  the  mill  towns  to  earn  at 
the  spinning  frame  or  power  loom  the  wherewithal  for 
a  dowry  or  an  education. 

Product  of  Manufactures 


I 


Census,  1900, 
IX,  II. 


Cotton  mf.  .  . 
Woolen  mf.  .  . 
Iron  mf .  in  tons 


1820 


$4,834,157 
4,413,068 


20,000 


1830 


$22,534,815 

14,528,166 

165,000 


1840 


$46,350,453 

20,696,999 

286,903 


Chickering, 
Foreign 


The  population  of  Eastern  cities  was  further  augmented 
by  immigration.  A  period  of  industrial  depression  foUow- 
mmigra  ion.  .^^  close  on  the  Napoleonic  wars  threw  thousands  of 
European  workmen  out  of  employment,  and  tlie  ships 
were  crowded  with  destitute  families,  English,  Irish,  and 
German,  who  gladly  abandoned  the  impoverished  old 
world  to  seek  a  living  in  America.     In  the  decade  from 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iSjj     209 

1820-1830,  150,000  ahens  entered  the  ports  of  the  United 
States,  and  in  the  decade  following  this  number  was 
quadrupled. 

Agriculture.  —  Throughout  the  North  Atlantic  section, 
except  where  the  river  bottoms  offered  soils  of  exceptional 
fertility,  agriculture  was  declining.  The  barren  hill  farms 
of  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  and  New  York  afforded  but 
a  meager  reward  to  labor  by  comparison  with  the  govern- 
ment lands  still  available  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and 
by  consequence  the  young  men  of  energy  and  ambition 
were  drawn  to  the  West,  "  to  the  fertile  prairies  of  Illinois 
and  Indiana  and  the  alluvions  of  Ohio."  Harriet  Marti- 
neau,  who  visited  New  England  in  1835,  "  heard  frequent 
lamentations  over  the  spirit  of  speculation ;  the  migration 
of  young  men  to  the  back  country ;  the  fluctuating  state 
of  society  from  the  incessant  movement  westward;  the 
immigration  of  laborers  from  Europe ;  and  the  ignorance 
of  the  sparse  [country]  population." 

In  the  South  Atlantic  states,  the  westward  movement 
was  no  less  apparent.  The  soil  of  the  Carolinas  was 
exhausted  by  continuous  cotton  culture  and  the  plantations 
no  longer  rendered  a  money  surplus.  The  younger  sons 
were  fain  to  migrate  with  slaves  and  overseers  into  the  un- 
exploited  wilderness  of  the  Gulf  states.  The  population 
of  Alabama  and  Missouri  was  doubled  and  that  of  Missis- 
sippi trebled  between  the  fifth  and  the  sixth  census,  the 
access  of  negroes  being  even  more  rapid  than  that  of  the 
whites.  The  rich  alluvial  lands  quickly  repaid  the  labor 
spent  upon  them ;  the  forests  once  cleared  and  the  black 
sodden  soil  turned  up  to  the  sun,  marvelous  crops  of  cotton 
were  produced.  The  price  of  this  staple  was  again  rising 
in  response  to  the  augmented  demands  of  Old  and  New 
England.  The  nadir  point  was  reached  in  1830,  when 
upland  cotton  sold  for  six  cents  per  pound,  but  the  price 
rose  to  eleven  and  three  fourths  cents  in  1833,  and  twenty 
cents  in  1835.  A  fever  of  speculation  ran  through  the 
South,  twenty  million  acres  were  planted  to  cotton  before 
1840,  and  the  financial  resources  of  the  country  were 


Martineau, 
Society  in 
America,  I, 
307. 

Martineau, 
I,  291. 


PhilUps, 
II,  SS-7S. 


Ballagh. 
Tariff  and 
Public 
Lands, 
253-263. 


p 


p 


Hammond, 
Ch.  II,  III. 


2X0      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

seriously  taxed.  The  initial  cost  of  the  land  was  slight, 
seldom  more  than  $5  an  acre,  and  although  stocking  the 
plantation  with  slaves  and  implements  involved  heavy 
outlays,  the  venture  was  almost  certain  to  be  remunerative. 
The  return  from  crop  sales  mounted  into  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands annually,  and  good  cotton  lands  brought  $1500  per 
acre  in  the  open  market.  A  sugar  plantation  in  Louisiana 
was  a  speculative  investment,  no  less  alluring  and  profitable. 

Throughout  the  Gulf  states  all  labor  was  relegated  to 
slaves,  and  the  social  order  was  as  aristocratic  as  on  the 
seaboard.  The  typical  planter  of  the  Mississippi  low- 
lands counted  his  slaves  by  hundreds  and  his  acres  by 
thousands.  In  the  uplands  six  hundred  acres  and  fifty 
slaves  were  a  more  economical  unit,  while  in  the  western 
foothills  of  the  Appalachians,  where  corn,  wheat,  and 
cattle  were  the  staple  products,  a  farmer  was  content  with 
a  hundred  acres  and  a  dozen  slaves,  or  might  be  reduced 
to  the  necessity  of  laboring  with  his  own  hands. 

The  expansion  of  the  South  was  determined  by  the  spread 
of  cotton  culture.  Tne  denser  population  areas  coincided 
with  the  "  black  belt"  of  rich  calcareous  loam  that  clothed 
the  foothills  of  the  Appalachians  from  Virginia  south  to 
the  Gulf  states  and  thence  west  across  the  bottom  lands  of 
the  Mississippi  into  eastern  Texas.  As  the  plantations 
of  the  older  states  degenerated,  new  lands  were  claimed 
and  cleared,  and  the  region  cultivated  to  cotton  gradually 
extended  westward  to  the  confines  of  the  Louisiana  Pur- 
chase. The  Mexican  boundary  and  the  Missouri  com- 
promise Hne  imposed  an  arbitrary  limit  to  the  domain  of 
King  Cotton,  but  the  great  staple  in  its  onward  march 
showed  small  respect  for  political  barriers.  Cotton 
planters  from  the  Gulf  states  began  carrying  their  slaves 
across  the  border  to  the  valley  lands  along  the  Sabine, 
Brazos,  and  Colorado  rivers  long  before  the  annexation 
of  Texas. 

Cotton  and  Slavery.  —  The  cotton  plantations  offered 
ideal  conditions  for  slave  labor.  The  hands  could  be 
massed  under  the  eye  of  the  overseer  to  a  degree  quite 


I    I 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iSjy     211 

impracticable  in  the  growing  of  corn  or  wheat  or  hay. 
Moreover,  at  several  stages  in  the  development  of  the  plant, 
all  the  laborers  on  the  place  could  be  utilized.  In  hoeing' 
picking,  and  chopping  seasons,  women  and  children  and 
white-haired  "  uncles  "  were  as  efficient  as  able-bodied  men. 
The  cost  of  maintenance  was  low,  since  the  slave  rations, 
corn  and  pork  and  sweet  potatoes,  might  be  grown  on  the 
place,  and  the  slave  quarters  were  usually  built  by  slave 
carpenters  out  of  lumber  from  the  freshly  cleared  land. 
The  actual  money  expenditure  need  not  average  more  than 
$15  per  year  for  each  man,  woman,  or  child  on  the  planta- 
tion. On  the  "  dead  lands  "  of  Virginia,  Maryland,  and 
Kentucky  slave  labor  had  ceased  to  be  profitable,  but  the 
cotton  belt  furnished  a  ready  market  for  the  surplus  negroes 
of  the  border  states.  Prices  rose  as  the  demand  increased. 
In  1790  the  best  field  hand  brought  but  $200.  In  1815 
the  price  of  an  average  hand  was  $250.  The  price  rose 
to  $500  in  1840,  $1000  in  1850,  and  from  $1400  to  $2000 
in  i860. 

When  negroes  brought  such  prices,  the  temptation  to 
import  in  defiance  of  law  was  too  great  to  be  withstood. 
Slavers,  fitted  out  in  New  York  and  New  Orleans,  Boston 
and  Portland,  were  engaged  in  carrying  kidnaped  Afri- 
cans to  Brazil,  Mexico,  and  Cuba,  whence  numbers  were 
smuggled  into  the  United  States. 

Because  of  its  low-grade  labor,  the  South  was  committed 
to  agriculture.  Manufacturing  machinery  could  not  be 
manipulated  by  ignorant  slaves,  and  the  capital  requisite 
for  factories  and  foundries  was  absorbed  by  the  equip- 
ment of  plantations.  The  incentives  to  city  building 
were  few  and  the  urban  population  increased  but  slowly. 
In  1840  there  were  three  times  as  many  towns  of  over 
eight  thousand  inhabitants  in  the  North  as  in  the  South. 
Of  cities  boasting  more  than  twenty  thousand  there  were 
eleven  in  the  North  and  but  five  in  the  South.  Of  these 
five,  Washington,  Baltimore,  and  Louisville  were  hardly 
to  be  reckoned  as  Southern  from  the  industrial  point  of 
view,  and  New  Orleans  owed  its  development  to  peculiar 


Kemble, 
Residence  on 
a  Georgia 
Plantation. 

De  Bow, 
Ind.  Re- 
sources of 
Southern  and 
Western 
States, 
I,  150.    * 

Olmstead, 
The  Cotton 
Kingdom, 
I,  Ch.  IV. 

De  Bow, 
I,  175- 

Hammond, 
51- 


Du  Bois, 
Suppression 
of  the  Slave 
Trade, 
Chs.  X,  XI. 

Twentieth 
Rept.  Am. 
Anti-Slavery 
Society, 
13-30. 


m 


ykt.;  ^ 


;l 


■    IS 


Martineau, 
I,  336. 

Birbeck, 
51,52,  82-83. 


Flint,  Rec- 
ollections 
of  Ten 
Years, 

lOI-III. 

Birbeck, 
102—105, 
150-153- 


212      Industrial  History  of  the  United.  States 

commercial  advantages.  The  prosperity  of  Southern 
cities  was  largely  conditioned  on  the  cotton  trade. 
Charleston,  Savannah,  Hamburg,  Natchez,  New  Orleans, 
were  situated  on  harbors  or  navigable  rivers  that  gave 
access  to  the  plantations.  Not  factories  and  workshops, 
but  cotton  presses  and  warehouses  filled  the  business 
quarters.  The  entrepreneurs  were  cotton  factors  who 
bought  the  cotton  sent  down  river  by  the  planters,  and 
sold  on  commission  to  the  brokers  of  New  York  and 
London. 

Free  Labor  and  Enterprise.  —  In  the  free  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  River,  the  quarter  section  farm  tilled 
by  the  owner  and  his  sons  was  the  typical  enterprise,  but 
the  prospects  of  the  thrifty  pioneer  were  no  less  brilliant. 
Miss  Martineau  was  assured  that  "  a  settler  cannot  fail 
of  success,  if  he  takes  good  land,  in  a  healthy  situation, 
at  the  government  price.  If  he  bestows  moderate  pains 
on  his  lot,  he  may  confidently  reckon  on  its  being  worth 
at  least  double  at  the  end  of  the  year;  much  more  if 
there  are  growing  probabilities  of  a  market."  Cultivated 
land  in  lUinois  was  then  selling  at  $30  or  even  $100  per 
acre. 

The  cotton  and  sugar  plantations  of  the  Gulf  states 
furnished  a  steady  and  pa3dng  market  for  the  food  supplies 
and  agricultural  implements  of  which  the  farmers  of  the 
Ohio  Valley  and  the  iron  masters  of  the  Alleghanies  were 
quick  to  take  advantage.  The  Mississippi  and  Ohio 
rivers  formed  the  great  highway  that  connected  North 
and  South.  Scows  and  flatboats  laden  with  flour  and  salt 
meat,  hogs  and  mules;  plows  and  cotton  gins,  floated  on 
the  spring  floods  down  the  tributary  streams,  the  AUe- 
gheny  and  Monongahela,  the  Muskingum,  Scioto,  and 
Wabash,  the  Cumberland  and  the  Tennessee,  manned 
by  young  countrymen  eager  for  adventure.  At  St.  Louis, 
at  Natchez,  and  at  New  Orleans,  where  these  farmer  mer* 
chants  hoped  to  dispose  of  their  stock  in  trade,  the  anchored 
craft  Uned  the  waterfront.  Many  a  cargo  was  sold  per- 
force at  less  than  cost,  and  many  a  boat  was  wrecked  on 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iSjy     213 

the  snags  and  shoals  of  the  treacherous  rivers ;  but  there 
was  always  the  chance  of  a  lucky  sale,  and  the  South  held 
out  golden  hopes  to  the  man  of  pluck  and  resource. 
Many  a  thrifty  emigrant  brought  a  wagon  load  of 
"  Yankee  notions  "  across  the  mountains  and,  arrived  at 
Pittsburg  or  Wheeling,  set  up  shop  in  his  keel  boat  and 
traded  from  settlement  to  settlement  as  he  floated  down 
the  river.  But  the  resourceful  pioneers  soon  began  to 
manufacture  for  themselves.  Wherever  the  Ohio  River 
furnished  power,  mills  were  set  up  to  furnish  the  goods 
that  were  too  bulky  or  too  breakable  to  be  freighted 
across  the  mountains.  At  Beaver  Creek  (1821)  were 
saw  and  gristmills,  fulling  and  carding  mills,  besides  an 
iron  furnace,  a  forge  and  a  flaxseed  grinder;  at  Mays- 
ville  there  was  a  rope-walk  and  a  glass  factory;  Paris 
boasted  a  cotton  n:ill,while  Cincinnati  vied  with  Pittsburg 
in  its  output,  having  a  foundry  and  a  nailcutting  ma- 
chine, a  steam  gristmill,  woolen  and  cotton  mills,  a  tan- 
nery, a  glass  factory,  \Ahite-lead  works,  and  a  shipyard 
where  steamers  were  built. 

The  Clermont's  successful  trip  on  the  Hudson  (1807) 
had  revolutionized  river  navigation  in  the  interior.  Steam 
rapidly  superseded  oar  and  sail  and  greatly  reduced 
the  time  and  cost  of  water  transportation.  A  line  of 
steamboats  had  been  established  on  the  Hudson  in  1808 
and  on  the  Ohio  in  181 1.  The  first  steamer  ran  from 
Pittsburg  to  New  Orieans  in  1812.  Timothy  Flint,  who 
went  down  the  Ohio  in  1818,  estimated  that  the  steamers 
had  thrown  ten  thousand  flatboats  and  keel  boats  out  of 
employment. 

In  the  first  fifty  years  of  our  national  history  the  growth 
of  population,  both  by  natural  increase  and  by  immigration, 
had  been  phenomenal.  The  most  rapid  advances  were 
made  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  five  thousand  settiers 
north  of  the  Ohio  in  1790  increased  to  three  million  in  the 
next  fifty  years,  and  the  population  of  the  states  south  of 
the  Ohio  had  multiplied  three  hundred  times  in  the  same 
interval. 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions, 13-37 


Flint, 

Letters  from 
America,  314. 

Chevalier, 

193-195, 
200-204. 


Chevalier, 
212-224. 


Flint, 
Recollec- 
tions, 16. 


McMaster, 

III,  459-495; 

IV,  Ch. 

xxin. 


Ill 


U.  S.  Census, 
I  goo,     I, 
XXIV-XXV. 


p 


Kettell, 
Southern 
Wealth  and 
Northern 
Profits,  Ch. 
II,  III,  IV. 


214      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

Per  Cent  of  Increase  of  Total  and  Urban  Popula- 
tion BY  Decades 


Decade 

U.S. 

N.  Atl. 

S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Ubban 

I 790-1800 

35-1 

33-9 

235 

206.7 

60.5 

1800-1810 

36.4 

32.3 

17.0 

474-8 

1341 

69.3 

1810-1820 

33-1 

25.0 

14.4 

1931 

73 -o 

331 

I 8 20-1 830 

33-5 

27.1 

19.1 

874 

51.8 

82.0 

I 830-1 840 

l^-l 

22.0 

7.7 

108. 1 

46.7 

68.2 

The  figures  indicate  a  general  westward  movement  of  the 
population  from  the  overcrowded  districts  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  to  the  new  lands  of  the  North  and  South  Central 
divisions.  The  westward  movement  still  followed  the  river 
courses.  The  valleys  of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland,  and 
the  Tennessee  were  first  taken  up,  and  by  the  fourth  dec- 
ade of  the  nineteenth  century,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  and 
Ohio  were  fully  occupied  by  a  farming  population.  With 
occasional  intervals,  the  lands  along  both  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  River  from  Prairie  du  Chien  to  New  Orleans 
had  been  made  over  to  settlers,  while  population  had  crept 
up  the  Missouri  River  to  its  junction  with  Kansas,  up  the 
Arkansas  River  to  Fort  Smith,  and  up  the  Red  Ri^'e^  to 
the  Mexican  boundary.  The  navigable  streams  flowing 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  —  the  Pearl,  Tombigbee,  Alabama, 
and  Chattahoochee  —  furnished  the  sole  means  of  getting 
cotton  to  market,  and  so  determined  the  course  of  settle- 
ment. Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario  were  a  no  less  important 
transportation  medium  to  the  wheat  farmers  of  northern 
New  York  and  Ohio. 

Internal  Commerce.  —  The  peritxl  of  isolation  and 
enforced  self-sufficiency  was  at  an  end.  Southern  planters 
could  ship  their  cotton  and  sugar  from  their  river  wharves 
to  New  Orleans  or  Mobile  where  the  season's  crop  was 
bought  up  by  a  factor  and  loaded  on  to  a  sea-going  vessel 
for  delivery  at  New  York  or  Liverpool.  The  staple  crops 
were  so  profitable  that  no  land  or  labor  could  be  spared 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  i8jy     21 S 

for  the  growing  of  wheat  and  corn.     Plantation  supplies, 
flour  and  pork  and  whisky,  were  produced  by  the  farmers 
of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  the  Lake  region  and  dispatched 
down  the  Mississippi  to  the  river  towns  for  the  use  of  the 
prodigal  planters.     Cotton,   the   ''money  crop"  of  the 
South,  brought  in  $1,000,000,000  in  twenty  years,  but  this 
vast  revenue  was  not  expended  at  home.     It  was  distrib- 
uted to  the  cotton  factors  and  shipmasters  of  the  North 
and  Great  Britain,  to  the  farmers  of  the  "  Western  Coun- 
try," to  the  ironmongers  of  Pittsburg,  to  the  manufac- 
turers of  New  England.     The  cotton  crop  enriched  every 
section  of  the  country  except  the  cotton  belt.     It  set  in 
motion  a  system  of  internal  commerce  which  promoted  the 
prosperity  of  the  United  States  more  than  any  other  single 
cause. 

In  the  twenty  years  from  1815  to  1835,  there  was  de- 
veloped a  territorial  division  of  labor  that  seemed  to  be 
extraordinarily  profitable  to  all  the  participants.  The 
planters  of  the  Gulf  states  from  Georgia  to  Texas,  with 
the  excepdon  of  southern  Louisiana,  were  absorbed  in  the 
growing  of  the  staple  export.  The  farmers  of  the  Middle 
West,  from  Tennessee  to  the  Lakes,  were  engaged  in  grow- 
mg  the  grain,  wool,  and  tobacco  required  by  their  neigh- 
bors to  the  south  and  east.  New  England,  New  York, 
and  Pennsylvania  were  content  to  manufacture  the  cot- 
tons, woolens,  and  iron  utensils  for  which  their  water 
power  and  transportation  facilities  gave  them  distinct 
advantage,  relying  on  the  markets  of  the  West  and 
South.  The  south  Atlantic  states,  unable  to  raise  tobacco 
or  cotton  or  cereals  on  their  exhausted  lands,  found  am- 
ple compensation  in  the  growing  demand  for  slaves  in  the 
new  South  beyond  the  Appalachians.  Slaves  were  driven 
over  land  to  New  Orieans  from  Virginia  and  Maryland 
by  the  tens  of   thousands  every  year. 

Means  of  transportation  were  at  hand  in  the  vast 
system  of  lakes  and  rivers  that  brought  the  remotest 
sections  of  the  great  interior  valley  into  communication 
with  the  sea.     The  Great  Lakes  were  inland  seas,  while 


Callender, 

Ch.  vn. 


;/ 


De  Bow,  I, 

445-446. 


Lambert,  II, 
T46-151, 

346-348. 


Collins, 
Domestic 
Slave  Trade, 
Ch.  n,  III. 


Chevalier, 
Letter  XXI. 


2i6      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


De  Bow, 
II,  445-446. 


Holmes, 
Ch.  IX. 


the  Mississippi  River  and  its  tributaries  furnished  16,674 
miles  of  steamboat  navigation.  The  tonnage  capac- 
ity of  the  Lake  steamers  was  estimated  at  100,000, 
and  the  population  served  at  3,000,000  (1846).  The 
tonnage  of  the  river  steamers  was  reckoned  to  be  250,000 
and  that  of  the  scows  and  flatboats  300,000,  and  the  popu- 
lation served  as  6,576,000.  The  net  money  revenues  from 
the  commerce  of  the  interior,  freight,  and  passengers 
amounted  to  $246,774,635  (1846),  and  the  number  of  sailors 
and  boatmen  employed  was  at  least  32,000. 

Direct  communication  between  the  Atlantic  states  and 
the  interior  was  far  more  difficult.  Except  by  way  of  the 
divides  cut  by  the  Mohawk  and  Potomac  rivers,  post  roads 
were  costly  and  freight  charges  prohibitive.  The  project 
of  artificial  waterways  had  been  broached  early  in  the 
century.  In  1810  Peter  Buell  Porter,  a  Congressman  from 
western  New  York,  advocated  the  appropriation  of  some 
portion  of  the  proceeds  of  the  state  land  sales  to  the  build- 
ing of  a  canal  along  the  Mohawk  to  Buffalo  and  by  way 
of  the  Allegheny  River  to  Pittsburg  in  order  that  the  salt 
manufactured  at  Syracuse  might  have  a  cheaper  outlet. 
He  urged  that  the  price  of  this  necessity  would  be  reduced 
to  consumers  by  fifty  per  cent.  Salt  was  then  selling  at 
the  works  for  twenty  and  thirty-five  cents  per  bushel, 
while  at  Pittsburg  it  brought  $2  per  bushel  because  of  the 
cost  of  carriage.  Porter  further  urged  the  extension  of 
water  communication  from  Syracuse  to  Lake  Ontario  via 
Oswego  River,  and  canal  connection  between  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Ohio  via  the  Muskingum  River.  Wheat  from  the 
interior,  then  selling  at  fifty  cents  a  bushel,  would  rise  to 
$1  if  the  cost  of  transportation  to  New  York  and  New 
Orleans  was  thus  reduced. 


Internal  Improvements. 

Canals.  —  The  post  roads  built  at  so  much  cost  across 
the  mountains  and  through  the  wilderness  had  greatly 


I 


bt 


•4 

< 

< 
U 

u 

OS 

f" 
<: 
o 
oa 

u 
< 

>« 

03 

'J 
z 

> 


Hulbert, 
Great  Am. 
Canals,  U. 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  1837     217 

facilitated  emigration,  but  could  not  serve  the  purposes 
of  traffic.    Most  Western  rivers  furnished  but  uncertain 
and  hazardous  avenues  of  trade,  and  it  was  of  prime  im- 
portance that  the  feasible  waterways  should  be  connected 
by  canals  if  the  products  of  Western  agriculture  were  to 
reach  Eastern  markets.     The  first  great  enterprise  of  this 
character  was  the  Erie  Canal,  undertaken  and  brought 
to  successful  completion  by  certain  pubhc-spirited  citizens 
of  New  York  City  (1817-1825).     This  costly  transporta- 
tion system  was  carried  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  through 
the  break  in  the  Alleghany  Range  made  by  the  Mohawk 
River.     It  followed  the  Mohawk  to  Rome,  and  thence, 
utilizing  the  water  of  numerous  small  lakes  and  streams' 
entered  Lake  Erie  by  the  Tonawanda  and  Niagara  rivers' 
The  shorter  route,  via  the  Oswego  to  Lake  Ontario,  was 
urged,  but  this  plan  would  have  diverted  traffic  to  the  St 
Lawrence  and  Montreal.     The  project  of  a  canal  around 
Niagara  Falls  failed  to  secure  support  for  the  same  reason. 
The  Erie  Canal  was  three  hundred  and  sixty-two  miles   Census 
m  length  and  the  cost  of  building  averaged  $20,000  per    ^880,  iV, 
mile,  but  the  tolls  of  the  first  nine  years'  use  amounted  to   ^^p',«"_ 
$8,500,000,  and  more  than  covered  the  initial  expenditure.     """^ '' '  ^ 
The  enterprise  paid  running  expenses  from  the  start,  and 
the  projectors  were  abundantly  justified  in  their  venture, 
but  the  secondary  advantages  to  the  state  were  far  greater.' 
Branch  canals  connected  the  main  trunk  with  Ontario 
Champlain,  and  Seneca  lakes.     The  freightage  on  a  ton  of 
goods  by  wagon  road  was  %2>^  for  a  hundred  miles-    by 
canal  the  same  distance  cost  $1  per  ton.     The  pro'duce  Wages  and 
of  the  lake  region  poured  down  this  channel  to  the  sea,  and   ^"^^^'  376- 
wealth  and  population  grew  by  leaps  and  bounds.  '  The  ^^^' 
villages  of  Syracuse,  Rochester,  and  Buffalo  waxed  thriv- 
ing towns,  and  New  York  City  became  the  leading  port 
of  the  United  States.     From  Chicago  to  the  sea  via  the 
Mississippi  and  New  Orieans  was  sixteen  hundred  miles 
from  Chicago  to  Montreal  by  way  of  the  lakes  and  the  St' 
Lawrence  measured  the  same  distance,  while  the  route  to 
New  York  by  the  Erie  Canal  was  but  twelve  hundred 


11 


Hulbert, 
Great  Am. 
Canals,  I, 
Ch.  IV. 


U.  S.  Census, 
1880,  IV, 
Rept.  on 
Canals,  6-8. 


Chevalier, 
Letter  XXI. 


Roberts, 
Anthracite 
Coal  Indus- 
try, Ch.  IV. 


218      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

miles.  The  problem  proposed  by  Washington  was  solved. 
The  industrial  and  political  allegiance  of  the  upper  Missis- 
sippi Valley  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard  was  determined  by 
the  opening  of  this  commercial  highway  between  the  two 
sections. 

The  Erie  Canal  threatened  to  deprive  Philadelphia  of 
the  major  part  of  her  Western  trade.  To  keep  her  hold  on 
Pittsburg  and  the  Ohio  Valley,  Pennsylvania  undertook 
(1826)  to  construct  a  system  of  canals  and  portages  from 
Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg,  following  the  Susquehanna, 
Juniata,  Conemaugh,  Kiskiminetis,  and  Allegheny  rivers. 
Connection  between  the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehanna 
was  made  by  a  horse  railroad,  while  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  range  between  HolHdaysburg  and  Johnstown 
was  crossed  b}'  the  Alleghany  Portage  Railway,  a  series 
of  inclined  planes  over  which  the  boats,  placed  on  wheeled 
cars,  were  drawn  by  stationary  engines.  This  transporta- 
tion system  was  complete  by  1834.  In  October  of  that 
year  the  keel  boat,  Eit  mid  Miss,  made  the  trip  from  the 
Lackawanna  down  the  Susquehanna  to  Columbia,  and  up 
the  canal  to  Hollidaysburg.  There  the  owner  expected 
to  sell  his  boat  and  transport  his  goods  by  wagon  road; 
but  boat  and  cargo  were  transferred  to  the  incline  railway 
and  successfully  freighted  to  the  western  division  of  the 
canal,  thence  the  astonished  navigator  pursued  the  water 
route  to  Pittsburg  and  St.  Louis.  A  rush  of  business 
poured  along  the  new  highway  to  the  West,  and  the  Portage 
Railway  was  overwhelmed  with  traffic  so  that  the  wagon 
road  was  in  constant  requisition.  Notwithstanding  this 
disadvantage,  the  Pennsylvania  Canal  was  a  successful 
rival  of  the  Erie,  and  Philadelphia  was  able  to  hold  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  commerce  with  the  interior.  The 
total  cost  of  this  transportation  system,  $10,038,133,  was 
met  by  the  state  of  Pennsylvania. 

A  promising  venture  for  private  transportation  com- 
panies was  offered  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  The  an- 
thracite coal  district  lay  in  the  mountain  valleys  where 
rise  the  Susquehanna  and  Lackawanna,  the  Schuylkill, 


I 


hidus trial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  i8^-j     219 


N 


f 


I 


I    i 


I 


Morris,  In- 
ternal Im- 
provements 
in  Ohio. 


!■ 


2 20      Industrial  History  of  t}u  United  States 

the  Lehigh,  and  the  Lackawaxen.  So  bulky  a  commodity 
as  coal  could  be  transported  only  by  water.  None  of  the 
rivers,  not  even  the  Susquehanna,  furnished  sufficient 
current,  except  during  floods,  to  float  coal  barges  to  the 
ports.  Within  five  years  of  the  day  when  "  stone  coal " 
was  successfully  used  in  the  Philadelphia  iron  works,  a 
canal  was  built  (1828)  connecting  the  Wyoming  district 
with  the  Delaware  by  way  of  the  Lackawaxen,  and  canals 
along  the  Lehigh,  Schuylkill,  and  Susquehanna  were  built 
about  the  same  time.  New  Jersey  put  through  the  Dela- 
ware and  Raritan  Canal  (1834-1838)  at  a  cost  of  $4,735,- 
353.  The  ship  canal  between  Chesapeake  and  Delaware 
bays  was  a  more  difficult  enterprise,  because  it  must  be 
cut  through  soUd  rock,  and  neither  Delaware  nor  Mary- 
land would  assume  the  task.  It  was  begun  under  private 
auspices,  but  in  1 806-1 807  the  directors  appealed  to  Con- 
gress for  aid,  arguing  that  such  a  waterway  would  have 
national  importance.  The  appropriation  recommended 
by  Secretary  Gallatin  was  not  made  until  1825,  when  the 
United  States  subscribed  to  $300,000  stock  in  the  comi)any. 
The  total  cost  was  $3,730,230. 

A  transportation  system  built  through  a  populous  section, 
or  along  a  well-defined  trade  route,  is  assured  from  the 
start ;  but  when  a  canal  is  carried  through  a  thinly  settled 
country,  dividends  must  wait  till  business  develops,  and 
bondholders  are  likely  to  lose  both  interest  and  principal. 
Private  capital  was  therefore  shy  of  such  investments  in 
the  new  West,  but  the  state  legislatures  did  not  hesitate 
to  appropriate  considerable  sums  of  public  money  in  aid 
of  canal  projects.  Thus  the  Miami  Canal  was  built  (1829) 
from  Cincinnati  to  Dayton,  and  the  Ohio  Canal  provided 
water  communication  between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio 
River  along  the  route  first  suggested  by  Washington,  up 
the  Cuyahoga  and  down  the  Tuscarawas  to  the  Muskingum 
and  the  Scioto.  Such  enterprises  proved  too  heavy  a  tax 
on  the  resources  of  a  pioneer  community,  and  the  states 
appealed  for  national  aid.  Congress  had  already  provided 
for  the  building  of  the  National  Road  through  the  Western 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  183J     221 

territory  out  of  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  public  lands,  and 
this  inexpensive  method  of  meeting  the  cost  of  construction 
was  now  applied  to  canals.  A  percentage  of  land  sales, 
or  the  lands  themselves,  were  made  over  to  the  state 
authorities  and  by  them  appUed  to  transportation  projects. 
Under  this  plan  the  Western  states  undertook  a  vast  net- 
work of  internal  improvements;  the  post  roads  from 
Columbus  to  Sandusky,  and  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the 
Ohio  River,  were  built  from  the  proceeds  of  land  grants, 
and,  so  aided,  Ohio,  in  cooperation  with  Indiana,  con- 
structed the  Wabash  and  Erie  Canal.  The  surplus  revenue 
distributed  by  the  Federal  government  in  1837  was  applied 
by  the  Western  states  to  transportation  facilities.  Antici- 
pating great  commercial  gains,  municipalities  made  extrava- 
gant contributions  to  canal  stock,  speculators  subscribed 
far  beyond  their  means,  and  bank  credits  were  strained 
to  the  danger  point  in  the  zeal  for  industrial  development. 
By  1837  $100,000,000  had  been  sunk  in  canals.  The  in- 
vestors found  that  they  had  buried  their  money  in  locks 
and  waterworks,  and  that  no  adequate  return  could  be  ex- 
pected until  the  country  had  grown  up  to  the  transporta- 
tion system. 

The  Southern  states  undertook  far  less  in  the  way  of 
internal  improvements.  Virginia  in  1828  completed  the 
Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  an  enterprise  set  on  foot  in  Wash- 
ington's day,  and  began  a  waterway  along  the  James  River 
through  the  Gap  of  the  Blue  Ridge  into  the  Great  Valley. 
South  Carolina  opened  communication  from  the  Santee 
River  to  Charleston  Harbor  by  a  canal  twenty-one  miles 
in  length,  and  New  Orleans  cut  a  ship  channel  between 
Lake  Pontchartrain  and  the  Mississippi,  while  the  enter- 
prising citizens  of  Kentucky  undertook  a  canal  around  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio.  This  last  was  only  three  miles  in  length, 
but  wide  and  deep  enough  to  admit  boats  of  one  hundred 
tons  burthen. 

Washington's  contention  that  Virginia  should  maintain 
direct  communication  with  the  West  by  way  of  the  Potomac 
and  the  Monongahela  had  borne  fruit  in  the  Potomac 


Benton, 
Wabash 
Trade  Route 


Writings  of 
Washington, 
X,  381-384. 


Hulbert, 
Great  Am. 
Canals,  I, 

chs.  n,  in. 


222       Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


1 


In     M 


1) 


\ 


. 


Ward, 
Chesapeake 
and  Ohio 
Canal. 


Lardner, 
Ch.  I. 


Hadley, 
Railroad 
Transporta- 
tion, Ch.  II. 

Adams, 

Railroads, 

1-79. 

Hulbert, 
Great  Am. 
Canals, 
I,  179— 181. 


Company,  which  spent  $729,380  in  forty  years  on  improv- 
ing the  river  bed,  but  accomplished  nothing  of  permanent 
utility.  The  success  of  the  Erie  Canal  determined  the 
state  to  charter  (1825)  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Company, 
authorized  to  raise  a  capital  of  $6,000,000  for  the  building 
of  a  canal  from  Georgetown  to  Cumberland  and  thence  by 
tunnel  across  the  range  to  the  Youghiogheny.  The  canal  was 
not  carried  more  than  half  this  distance,  but  its  ultimate 
cost  was  $11,000,000,  of  which  $7,000,000  was  contributed 
by  the  state  of  Maryland,  $1,500,000  by  the  terminal 
cities,  and  $1,000,000  by  the  United  States  government. 
The  route  beyond  Harpers  Ferry  was  very  difficult,  raising 
the  average  cost  of  construction  to  $59,618  per  mile,  and 
the  promoters  became  discouraged.  The  progress  of  this 
enterprise  was  delayed  by  the  appearance  of  a  dangerous 
rival,  the  steam  railway.  Baltimore  gave  her  support  to 
the  new  transportation  agency,  and  her  citizens  sub- 
scribed liberally  to  the  stock  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad.  Railway  and  canal  were  built  contt^mpora- 
neously  alorig  the  same  general  route  as  far  as  Cumberland, 
and  there  the  canal  stopped ;  but  the  railroad  easily 
mounted  the  divide  and  made  it  possible  to  carry  freight 
and  passengers  directly  to  the  Ohio  and  beyond. 

Railroads.  —  Canal  traffic  w^as  safe  and  cheap,  but  slow 
and  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  slack  water,  floods,  or  frost. 
The  Erie  Canal,  for  example,  freezes  over  in  winter,  and 
navigation  is  stopped  for  from  four  to  five  months  in  the 
year.  A  railroad  can  be  built  through  mountainous  country 
at  one  third  the  cost  of  a  canal,  and  over  heights  to  which 
water  cannot  be  conducted.  A  car  run  on  wheels  fitted 
to  the  iron  track  encounters  less  friction  than  a  wagon  on 
a  turnpike,  less  resistance  than  a  boat  in  water. 

The  first  railroads  were  built  to  supplement  the  canal 
system,  as  the  ship  railway  from  Hollidaysburg  to  Johns- 
town, the  Mauch  Chunk  extension  of  the  Lehigh  Canal, 
the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company's  tramway 
from  Carbondale  to  Honesdale.  Cars  loaded  with  coal 
and  stone  were  drawn  over  these  iron  tracks  by  stationary 


Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal  at  Harpers  J'Krrv 


Locks  ok  Erik  Canal  at  Loc  kport 


k 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iS^^j     223 

engines,  horse  power,  and  even  sails.  The  lirsL  locomotive 
was  imported  from  England  by  the  Delaware  and  Hudson 
Company  in  1829,  but  it  proved  impracticable  because  the 
track  had  not  been  built  for  so  heavy  a  weight. 

After   diverse   experiments,    the   Baltimore   and   Ohio 
management  chose  steam  as  the  most  practicable  motor 
(1831).     Peter    Cooper's    engine,    the    "Tom    Thumb," 
made  the  trial  trip  over  the  thirteen  miles  of  track  between 
Baltimore  and  EUicott's  Mills  in  one  hour.     In  the  same 
autumn,  several  trips  were  made  over  the  South  CaroHna 
Railroad    from    Charleston    to    Hamburg.    The    "  Best 
Friend  "  ran  from  sixteen  to  twenty-one  miles  an  hour  with 
five  loaded  cars  attached;    without  the  cars,  the  speed 
attained  was  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  miles  an  hour. 
The  following  year  the  "  De  Witt  CUnton  "  made  a  trial 
trip  on  the  railroad  then  building  up  the  Mohawk  Valley, 
and  covered  the  seventeen  miles  from  Albany  to  Schenec- 
tady in  one  hour.     On  the  occasion  of  the  formal  opening 
of  this  line,  the  legislators  then  assembled  at  Albany  were 
conveyed  to  Schenectady  and  there  dined  in  state.     One 
of  the  toasts  voiced  a  daring  prophecy.     "  The  Buffalo 
Railroad,  —  May  we  soon  breakfast  in  Utica,   dine  in 
Rochester,  and  sup  with  our  friends  on  Lake  Erie !  "     The 
journey  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  by  swiftest  packet  boat 
required  at  that  time  three  or  four  days. 

Speed  is  an  all-important  consideration  in  the  trans- 
portation of  passengers  and  perishable  freight.  Therefore 
public-spirited  citizens  and  enterprising  communities 
made  haste  to  introduce  railroad  connections  and  so  to 
reap  the  first  fruits  of  the  new  transportation  system.  The 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  line  was  rapidly  pushed  iip  the  Poto- 
mac Valley  and  was  completed  to  Cumberland  in  1835, 
but  the  crossing  of  the  Alleghany  Range  and  connection 
with  the  Ohio  was  not  attained  till  1853. 

Railroads  were  intended  originally  to  further  water  trans- 
portation. The  aim  was  to  freight  the  products  of  the  in- 
terior to  the  ports,  as  is  evident  in  the  three  lines  radiating 
from  Boston  to  Lowell,  Worcester,  and  Providence,  and 


Reizenstein, 
Baltimore 
and  Ohio 
Railroad. 

Lardner, 
Steam  En- 
gine. 


Brown, 
First  Loco- 
motives in 
Am.,  Ch. 

XV,  xvn, 

XX-XXIII, 

XXVII- 

XXIX. 


Lardner, 
327-348- 
De  Bow, 
II,  461-463. 


1 1 


224      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  iS^j     225 

in  the  short  lines  running  up  country  from  New  Haven,  Chevalier, 
Bridgeport,  and  New  York.  Other  roads  were  intended  ^^"^''  ^^^ 
to  make  connection  between  water  routes:  witness  the 
line  from  Boston  to  Providence  (whence  passengers  took 
steamer  to  New  York),  the  two  rival  lines  across  New 
Jersey,  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington  and  Baltimore,  and 
the  Great  Southern  Railway.  Before  the  close  of  the  first 
decade  of  railroad  building,  a  series  of  connecting  lines 
covered  the  thousand  miles  between  Portland,  Maine,  and 
Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  following  the  direction  of 
the  Hartford  Trail,  the  King's  Path,  and  the  early  post 
roads,  so  that  passengers  and  shippers  might  choose  between 
railway  transportation  and  the  slower  but  cheaper  steamers. 
Traffic  on  Lake  Erie  was  supplemented  by  short  lines 
built  inland  from  Sandusky,  Toledo,  and  Detroit  before 
1840.  In  the  next  decade  connection  between  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Ohio  River  was  made  by  the  Cincinnati  and  San- 
dusky, and  the  Detroit  and  Ann  Arbor  Railway  was  carried 
through  to  Lake  Michigan  to  avoid  a  long  and  circuitous 
voyage. 


Commercial  Development 

The  Coastwise  Trade.  —  With  the  development  of  the  Marvin, 
interior,  domestic  commerce  increased  in  volume  until  it  363-375. 
had  become  a  far  more  important  factor  in  the  nation's 
prosperity  than  the  transatlantic.  The  vessels  engaged 
in  the  coastwise  trade  multiplied  year  by  year.  The  ton- 
nage so  enrolled  was  516,086  in  1831,  by  1840  the  million 
mark  was  reached,  and  this  figure  was  doubled  and  trebled 
in  the  next  twenty  years.  Steamships  were  introduced 
in  the  coasting  service  in  1823,  when  a  steamer  pUed  reg- 
ularly between  Boston  and  the  Kennebec  River,  and  a 
line  was  soon  after  estabUshed  between  New  York  and  the 
Southern  ports.  Sharp  competition  between  steam  and 
sail  ensued.  The  average  speed  of  the  coast  steamers, 
ten  miles  an  hour,  might  easily  be  surpassed  by  a  schooner 
with  a  favorable  wind,  and  fast-sailing  barkentines  and 


m 


Marvin, 
395-402. 


Laxdner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
311-325. 


De  Bow, 
11.  458- 


226      Indtistrial  History  of  the   United  States 

brigantines  of  enlarged  hold  capacity  were  devised  to  meet 
the  rival  motor  power.  Having  no  coal  bills  to  pay,  the 
sailing  vessels  could  offer  lower  rates  and  so  manage  to 
hold  their  own  in  the  bulky  freight  traffic.  They  con- 
tinued to  carry  the  major  part  of  the  coal,  wood,  and  iron 
manufactures  shipped  from  Northern  ports  in  exchange 
for  the  cotton,  sugar,  and  hard  timber  of  the  South ;  but 
passenger  traffic  was  rapidly  transferred  to  the  safer  and 
more  regular  steamship  lines. 

Commerce  on  the  Great  Lakes  was  marvelously  in- 
creased since  the  days  when  the  open  boat  of  the  fur 
trader  made  its  perilous  way  from  Buffalo  to  Detroit  and 
Michilimackinac.  No  sooner  had  the  Erie  Canal  been  fin- 
nished  than  a  brisk  trade  developed  along  the  American 
shores.  Scores  of  brigs  and  schooners  were  built  at  Buffalo 
and  Erie  to  transport  the  wheat  and  lumber  products  of  the 
pioneer  settlements  to  Eastern  markets.  Nine  tenths  of 
this  traffic  was  between  United  States  ports  and  thus  was 
reserved  to  our  own  vessels.  A  little  steamer  of  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty  tons,  Walk-in-the-Water,  was  launched  at 
Buffalo  in  18 19.  The  venturesome  pioneer  was  wrecked 
two  years  later,  but  her  place  was  soon  filled  by  regular 
lines  of  lake  steamers.  They  were  built  stanch  and  broad 
to  breast  the  winds  and  waves  of  these  inland  seas.  The 
side  wheel,  customary  as  yet  in  ocean  steamers,  was  found 
impracticable  where  canals  and  narrow  channels  were  to 
be  traversed,  and  Ericsson's  screw  propeller  gradually 
superseded  the  original  model. 

Our  wonderful  waterway  to  the  heart  of  the  continent 
was  extended  and  improved  by  numerous  canals.  The 
Canadian  government  built  the  Welland  Canal  in  1833, 
and  the  state  of  Michigan  built  the  locks  at  Sault  Ste. 
Marie  in  1855,  while  the  dangerous  passage  through  Porte 
des  Morts  was  avoided  by  a  canal  from  Lake  Michigan 
to  Sturgeon  Bay.  Connection  between  Chicago  and  the 
Mississippi  was  opened  via  the  Des  Plaines  and  the  Illinois 
rivers  in  1848,  and  the  old  trader's  route  between  Green 
Bay  and  Prairie  du  Chien  was  made  practicable  for  lake 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  183J     227 

vessels  by  a  canal  across  the  portage  between  the  Fox  and  Lardner 
Wisconsm  rivers.     By  this  means,  a  boat  loaded  at  Buffalo  ^^s- 
might  reach  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  the  Yellowstone 
or  New  Orleans  without  shifting  her  cargo.     A  steamed  ja„es 
of  moderate  bulk  and  draught  might,  indeed,  make  the   The  danal 
top  from  Baltimore  to  New  Orieans  by  inland  waters    ^""^  ^^ 
never  feeling  the  ocean  swell  except  for  a  few  hours  in  New  ^^^^^' 
York  harbor.     The  advantages  for  domestic  commerce 
of  safe  and  cheap  transportation  throughout  this  enor- 
mus  circuit   can   hardly  be   overestimated. 

Speculation  and  the  Crisis 

in  every  branch  of  industry  the  craze  for  investment 
had  gone  far  beyond  safe  limits.  Men  did  not  hesitate 
to  borrow  at  extravagant  rates  of  interest  and  to  mortgage 
future  earmng  power  in  proportion  to  their  most  ardent 
anticipations.  The  capital  sunk  in  wheat  farms  and 
cotton  plantations,  in  gristmills  and  cotton  mills,  in  canals 
and  railroads  and  steamship  hnes,  could  not  yield  immediate 
profit,  and  many  a  promising  enterprise  was  swamped 
m  irredeemable  obhgations.  Impelled  by  buoyant  con- 
fidence m  Its  apparently  inexhaustible  resources,  the  men 
of  the  new  frontier  scoffed  at  financial  Hmitations ;  and 
the  bitter  experience  of  inflaUon  and  collapse  through 
which  the  Eastern  states  had  passed  twenty  years  before 
was  Ignored.  Western  financiers  chafed  at  the  restraints 
imposed  by  the  National  Bank  and  proposed  the  over- 
throw  of  this  Eastern  institution,  in  order  that  a  free  field 
might  be  opened  to  the  state  banks  of  issue. 

Failure    to    Recharter.  —  When    the    petition    for   re- 
chartering  the  National  Bank  came  before  Congress  in 
1832,  the  proposition  was  vigorously  opposed.     The  bill 
secured  a  majority  in  both  Houses,  but  it  was  vetoed  by 
I'resident  Jackson  on  the  ground  that  the  bank  had  ''  failed   Sumner 
in  the  great  end  of  estabUshing  a  sound  and  uniform   Andrew' 
currency."    Jackson  came  from  Tennessee,  where  wildcat  ^t'^^t'''  ^^ 
banking  had  gone  to  unprecedented  extremes,  and  where 


Cong,  Globe, 
I  St  Session, 
1835-1836, 
8. 


Laughlin, 
Bimetallism, 
Ch.  IV. 

Sumner, 
Hist.  Am. 
Currency, 
103-113. 


Dewey, 
224-231. 


Chevalier, 
Letters  III, 
IV.  V,  XIII. 


228      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  ruin  wrought  by  the  restrictive  measures  enforced 
by  the  Eastern  financiers  was  keenly  felt.  He  had  derived 
from  this  experience  a  profound  distrust  of  the  National 
Bank  as  a  dangerous  monopoly,  a  conviction  that  the  issue 
of  paper  currency  should  be  left  to  state  control,  and  the 
hope  that  all  bank  money  might  soon  be  superseded  by 
specie.  He  believed  that  suppression  of  bank  notes  be- 
low the  twenty-dollar  denomination  would  necessitate  the 
use  of  gold  and  silver  and  place  the  currency  on  a  sound  basis. 

The  Debasement  of  the  Coinage.  —  Unfortunately  the 
bimetallic  system  was  altered  for  the  worse  just  at  this 
juncture.  The  discovery  of  workable  gold  in  the  moun- 
tains of  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  gave  some  reason  to 
believe  that  the  domestic  production  of  this  metal  might 
supply  the  money  needs  of  the  country.  The  ratio  of 
fifteen  to  one  fixed  upon  in  1792  was  an  overvaluation  of 
silver,  and  gold  coins  had  been  withdrawn  from  circula- 
tion. In  1834  the  ratio  was  altered  to  sixteen  (15.98)  to 
one.  The  amount  of  pure  gold  in  the  eagle  was  reduced 
from  247.5  grains  to  232  grains  with  the  effect  of  debasing 
the  coinage  by  6.26  per  cent.  Benton  and  the  other  sup- 
porters of  the  administration  policy  flattered  themselves 
that  they  were  restoring  to  circulation  the  "  dollar  of  the 
fathers,"  the  silver  dollar  of  371.25  grains  proposed  by 
Hamilton;  but  under  the  new  ratio  silver  was  under- 
valued and  disappeared  from  circulation.  Gold  began  to 
be  coined  at  the  rate  of  three  and  four  million  dollars  a 
year,  but  not  in  sufficient  quantities  to  meet  the  money 
demand.     Some  form  of  paper  currency  was  inevitable. 

The  Crisis  of  1837.  —  The  war  against  the  National 
Bank  was  carried  on  with  unflagging  zeal.  The  Presi- 
dent's policy  was  supported  not  only  by  the  champions 
of  the  state  banks,  but  by  the  whole  debtor  class.  When 
the  proposition  for  renewal  came  up  again  in  1834,  it  was 
defeated  by  a  large  majority.  The  withdrawal  of  the 
National  Bank  notes  left  a  vacuum  which  the  state  banks 
were  not  long  in  making  good.  In  the  West  and  South 
banks  were   chartered  without  let   or  hindrance.    The 


( 


Industrial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  1837     229 

number  increased  from  three  hundred  and  twenty-nine  in 
1829  to  seven  hundred  and  eighty-eight  in  1837,  with  a 
proportionate  increase  of  capital.  During  the  same  in- 
terval the  volume  of  the  currency  was  trebled,  and  bank 
loans  were  extended  at  an  even  more  rapid  rate. 

Speculation  was  outstripping  the  available  capital  of  the 
country.    Land   jobbers   borrowed   freely   of   the   banks 
in   the   expectation   of   speedy   returns.     Transportation 
companies  were  chartered  by  the  score  and  undertook 
schemes  far  beyond  the  needs  of  traffic.     Imports  exceeded 
exports  for  the  speculative  period  (1830-1837)  by  $140,- 
000,000.     Importers  ran  up  bills  with  their  foreign  agents 
or  induced  their  creditors  to  take  stock  in  American  enter- 
prises by  way  of  payment.     Under  the  stimulus  of  ad- 
vancing prices,   the  cotton  planters  of  the   Gulf  states 
extended  their  acreage,  mortgaging  the  growing  crop  for  Hammond, 
the  money  with  which  to  buy  slaves  and  put  up  cotton  gins.   7i.  72. 
The   Mississippi   Valley,   north  and   south,   was  heavily 
mortgaged  to  the  Eastern  bankers ;  the  seaboard  states 
were  under  heavy  obligadons  to  English  capitalists ;  but 
the  largest  creditor  of  all  was  the  United  States  govern- 
ment.    The  so-called  cash  payment  for  public  lands  had 
been  receivable  in  National  Bank  notes,  or  in  the  notes  of 
such  state  banks  as  could  assure  specie  redemption.     The 
disdncdon  was  not  one  easily  sustained.     Many  of  the 
''  coon  box  "  banks,  organized  since  1830,  were  loaning 
irredeemable  currency  to  land  speculators,  who  presented 
it  at  the  government  land  offices  in  defiance  of  the  law, 
and  the  United  States  Treasury  was  soon  glutted  with  this 
depreciated  currency.     In  1836  a  resolution  was  brought 
forward  in  the  Senate  requiring  that  such  payments  be 
made  in  gold  and  silver,  but  it  failed  to  pass.     Under  direc- 
tion of  President  Jackson,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
issued  the  famous  specie  circular,  directing  that  land  sales 
must  be  effected  in  legal  tender  except  in  case  of  actual 
settlers  and  bona  fide  residents  in  the  state  where  the  lands 
lay.    From   such   purchasers   bank   bills   would   still  be 
received.    The  effect  of  the  specie  circular  was  to  dis- 


I 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
624-628. 


Diary  of 
Philip  Hone, 
I,  251-259. 


Collins,  Hist. 
Sketches  of 
Kentucky, 
9S-Q7. 


230      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

credit  the  state  bank  notes,  and  private  creditors  began 
to  demand  payment  in  coin. 

When,  in  October,  1836,  financial  depression  over- 
whelmed the  English  business  world,  American  obligations 
were  called  in,  and  the  banking  houses  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  became  seriously  embarrassed.  Then  the 
Enghsh  cotton  factories  curtailed  production,  and  the 
price  of  cotton  fell.  The  New  Orleans  banks,  accustomed 
to  loan  freely  on  cotton  securities,  were  the  first  to  break 
down.  Most  of  the  cotton  factors  failed,  and  the  Cotton 
Exchange  was  prostrated.  The  crisis  was  extended  to  the 
Northern  banks  by  a  general  failure  of  cereal  crops  in  1835 
and  again  in  1837.  The  farmers  of  the  Middle  and  Western 
states  had  nothing  to  sell,  and  were  as  Uttle  able  as  the 
cotton  planters  to  meet  their  obligations.  Unable  to 
reaUze  upon  their  loans,  the  credit  agencies  collapsed  like 
so  many  balloons.  On  May  10,  1837,  the  banks  of  New 
York  City  suspended,  dragging  down  in  their  failure  many 
business  houses,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  bankruptcies 
occurred  within  two  months.  Real  estate  depreciated  in 
value  $40,000,000,  while  twenty  thousand  men  were  thrown 
out  of  employment.  The  outraged  pubUc  grew  dangerous, 
and  the  miUtia  was  called  in  to  protect  the  terrified  financiers. 
The  Philadelphia  banks  went  next.  The  officers  declared 
that  deposits  were  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  their  own 
constituents,  but  that  they  could  not  be  expected  to  pro- 
vide currency  for  the  length  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  The 
panic  spread  like  an  epidemic,  and  six  hundred  and  eight- 
een banks  failed  in  this  fatal  year.  Everywhere  outside 
of  New  England  the  collapse  was  complete.  A  contempo- 
rary thus  describes  the  crisis  in  Kentucky :  "  Specie 
disappeared  from  circulation  entirely,  and  the  smaller 
coin  was  replaced  by  paper  tickets,  issued  by  cities,  towns, 
and  individuals,  having  a  local  currency,  but  worthless 
beyond  the  range  of  their  immediate  neighborhood.  .  .  . 
Bankruptcies  multipUed  in  every  direction.  All  public 
improvements  were  suspended ;  many  states  were  unable 
to  pay  the  interest  of  their  respective  debts,  and  Ken- 


Indus trial  Expansion  and  the  Crisis  of  1S37     231 

tucky  was  compelled  to  add  50  per  cent  to  her  direct  tax 
or  forfeit  her  integrity.  In  the  latter  part  of  1841,  and  in 
the  year  1842,  the  tempest  so  long  suspended  burst  in 
all  force  over  Kentucky.  The  dockets  of  her  courts 
groaned  under  the  enormous  load  of  lawsuits,  and  the 
most  frightful  sacrifices  of  property  were  incurred  by 
forced  sales  under  execution." 

Thus  another  period  of  reckless  speculation  was  brought   Wages  and 
to  a  sudden  close.     The  discredited  bank  notes  depreciated  ^"^^^' 
in  value,  and  prices  shrank  to  a  hard  money  level.    Factories   ^^^  ^^^' 
and  workshops,  organized  on  a  boom  basis,  closed  in  antici- 
pation of  a  falling  market.     Thousands  of  operatives  were 
discharged,  and  the  cities  were  crowded  with  the  unem- 
ployed.    All  classes  curtailed  expenditure,  and  the  demand 
for  goods  was  thus  further  reduced.     Seeing  the  market 
overstocked,  entrepreneurs  were  slow  to  take  risks,  and 
capitaUsts  decUned  to  loan  money  on  any  terms. 

The  country  underwent  five  years  of  financial  depression. 
Specie  payment  was  generally  resumed  in  1838,  but  the  re- 
Uef  was  short-lived.  Seven  hundred  and  fifty-nine  banks 
closed  their  doors  the  following  year,  and  the  business 
world  was  not  again  in  working  order  until  1842.  In  the 
interval  the  circulating  medium  had  been  contracted  from 
$149,000,000  to  $83,000,000.  Imports  fell  off,  and  hence 
the  customs  revenue  declined.  Sales  of  pubUc  lands  shrank 
from  $24,877,000  in  1836  to  $898,000  in  1843.  The  sharp 
reduction  in  revenue  placed  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, which  had  distributed  a  surplus  of  $37,000,000  in 
1837,  under  necessity  of  declaring  a  deficit  of  $42,900,000 
for  the  seven  years  of  the  depression.  Some  of  the  newer 
state  governments  were  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy. 
Mississippi  and  Florida  repudiated  their  bonded  indebt- 
edness. 


-' — i\ 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs      233 


Percentage  Increase  of  Total  and  Urban  Population 


U.  S.  Census, 
i8qo, 
Wealth, 
Debt,  etc., 
Ft.  n,  14. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

TERRITORIAL  EXPANSION   AND   REVENUE 

TARIFFS 

Growth  in  Wealth  and  Population 

The  twenty  years'  interval  between  the  crisis  of  1837 
and  that  of  1857  witnessed  the  most  remarkable  industrial 
development  yet  achieved  in  the  United  States.  The  wealth 
of  the  country  was  quadrupled  in  this  ' '  golden  age. ' '  Riches 
multiplied  more  rapidly  than  population.  Our  per  capita 
wealth  in  i860  was  more  than  double  that  of  1840,  more 
than  three  times  that  of  1790.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
epoch,  the  accumulation  of  property  was  greatest  in  the 
older  and  more  industrial  sections  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
but  the  agricultural  communities  of  the  Mississippi  Valley 
made  rapid  gains  and  in  the  second  decade  doubled  the 
amount  of  wealth  per  inhabitant. 

Per  Capita  Wealth  in  the  Several  Sections  of  the  United 

States 


Year 

N.  Atl. 

S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Westerm 

1850      .... 
i860      .... 

$363 
528 

^333 
537 

$208 
436 

$299 
598 

$187 
434 

The  growth  of  population,  while  not  so  phenomenal  as 
during  the  colonial  and  pioneer  periods  of  our  history, 
was  still  more  rapid  than  in  any  Old  World  country, 

332 


Decade 

U.S. 

N.Atl. 

S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Urban 

184Q-1850     . 
1850-1860     . 

35-9 
35-6 

27.6 
22.8 

19.2 
14-7 

61.2 
68.3 

42.2 
34.0 

99-3 
75-1 

The  drift  of  population  cityward  became  marked  after  u.  s.  Census, 
1840.     The  number  of  towns  with  a  population  of  more  ^900,  Pop., 
than  8000,  only  44  in  1840,  was  141  in  i860.     New  York  \^~ 
City  grew  in  this  twenty  years  from  313,000  to  806,000. 
The  chief  reasons  for  this  increasing  concentration  must 
be  sought  in  the  growth  of  manufactures  and  commerce. 
Cities  played  an  increasing  part  in  our  industrial  develop- 
ment because  the  introduction  of  machinery  and  steam 
transportation  called  for  the  massing  of  labor  and  capital. 

Density  of  Population 


Year 

N.  Atl. 

S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Cent. 

Western 

1840  .      .     . 
1850  .     .     . 
i860  .      .     . 

41.7 
53-2 
654 

14.6 
17.4 
20.0 

4.4 

7.2 

12. 1 

8.7 

71 
10.7 

.2 

•5 

U.  S.  Census, 
1900,  Pop.,  I, 

XXX. 


The  figures  indicate  a  general  westward  movement  of  the 
population  from  the  overcrowded  districts  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  to  the  new  lands  of  the  North  and  South  Central 
divisions.  The  relatively  rapid  increase  in  the  Northern 
as  compared  with  the  Southern  sections  is  due  to  immigra- 
tion. In  i860  there  were  4,138,000  foreign  born  in  the 
United  States,  the  greater  part  of  whom  had  come  into 
the  country  since  1840.  Famine  had  driven  781,000  Irish 
peasants  to  our  shores  in  the  first  decade  and  914,000  in 
the  second.  Political  disturbances  combined  with  in- 
dustrial depressions  induced  1,386,000  Germans  to  migrate 


Holmes, 
Ch.  VII. 


U.  S.  Census, 
1900, 

I,  ciii. 

Smith, 
Emigration 
and  Immi- 
gration, Ch. 

II,  III. 


Chickering, 

Foreign 

Immigration. 


Sato, 
422-428. 


234      Indus  trial  History  of  the  United  States 

to  America  during  this  same  twenty  years.  By  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  European  immigrants  came  to  the 
Northern  states.  The  chance  to  earn  good  wages  in  the 
factory  towns  of  New  England,  in  the  mines  and  foundries 
of  Pennsylvania,  attracted  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Eng- 
lish, Welsh,  and  Irish  thither,  and  the  native  American 
operatives  were  being  superseded  by  foreigners  whose 
standard  of  Uving  did  not  require  so  high  a  wage.  The 
German  immigrants  usually  pushed  on  into  the  new  West 
in  search  of  government  land.  The  Preemption  Act  of 
1 841  finally  assured  to  the  squatter  the  privilege  of  buying 
the  land  he  had  brought  under  cultivation  at  the  govern- 
ment price  of  $1.25,  no  matter  what  the  competitive  value 
might  be  at  the  time  the  tract  was  offered  for  sale.  Cash 
payment  might  thus  be  postponed  until  the  settler  haol 
earned  the  sum  required. 

Few  foreigners  found  their  way  to  the  Southern  states, 
Here  the  opportunity  for  wage-earning  employment  wa& 
forestalled  by  slavery,  and  there  was  Uttle  free  land  except 
in  the  pine  barrens.  Moreover,  the  small  farmer  had  nc: 
chance  in  competition  with  the  large-scale  producer,  and 
hence  the  average  size  of  holdings  was  two  and  three  times 
greater  in  the  Southern  states  than  in  the  Northern. 

Average  Number  of  Acres  per  Farm 


Twentieth 
Rept.  Am. 
Anti- 
Slavery 
Society, 
13-30- 


U.  S.  Census, 
iQOo,  V,  xxi. 


Year 

U.S. 

N.  Atl. 

N.  Cent. 

S.  Atl. 

S.  Cent. 

Western 

1850       .     . 
i860       .     . 

202.6 
199.2 

112.6 
108. 1 

143-3 
139.7 

376.4 
352.8 

291.0 
321.3 

694.9 
366.9 

The  foreign  element  of  the  Southern  states  was  derived 
from  Africa,  and  the  presence  of  these  alien  laborers  de- 
barred European  immigration.  In  the  last  decade  before 
the  Civil  War  the  clandestine  slave  traders  grew  very  bold. 
Shiploads  were  landed  in  the  secluded  bayous  of  the  Gulf 
coast  and  Florida,  even  at  the  port  of  Mobile.     It  is  esti- 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     235 

mated  that  between  1808  and  i860  270,000  slaves  were  Dubois, 
smuggled  into   the  United  States.    These  fresh  importa-  Slave  Trade, 
tions  of  African  blood  added  to  the  numbers  but  degraded  ^^'  ^'  ^^- 
the  quality  of  the  slave  population  of  the  South  during  the 
very  period  in  which  the  North  was  receiving  large  acces- 
sions of  laborers  from  the  most  civilized  races  of  Europe. 

Proportion  of  Slaves  to  White  Population 


State 


1850 


Per  cent 


Delaware  .  . 

Missouri    .  . 
Maryland 
Kentucky 
Tennessee 

Arkansas    .  . 

Texas    .     .  . 
North  Carolina 

Virginia     .  . 

Georgia      .  . 

Alabama    .  . 

Florida      .  . 
Louisiana 
Mississippi 
South  Carolina 


S 
IS 
21 

28 
32 
37 
40 
%% 

53 

71 
80 

83 
91 

103 

140 


i860 


Per  cent 


II 

17 
24 
33 
34 
43 
52 
47 
78 

83 

79 

93 
123 

138 


De  Bow, 
III,  419. 

U.  S.  Census. 
i860, 

Population, 
vii-xvi. 


Ingle  estimates  that  in  1850  there  were  2,500,000  slaves  ingle, 
on  the  plantations  of  the  South,  of  whom   the   number  Southern 
350,000  were  employed  in  growing  tobacco,  rice  125,000,   ch^ynf 
sugar  150,000,  hemp  60,000.     The  remainder,  1,815,000 
men,  women,  and  children,  were  at  work  in  the  cotton  fields 
of  the  ''black  belt."    This  vast  army  of  cotton  growers 
represents  well-nigh  the  total  increase  in  the  slave  popula- 
tion in  the  sixty  years  from  1790  to  1850.     There  were  in 
the  Southern  states  on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War  3,954,000 
slaves  and  262,000  free  negroes,  making  together  fully  one 
third  of  the  total  population.     The  foreign  born  were  then 
542,000,  but  one  twenty-fourth  of  the  total.    The  propor- 


Brown, 
Lower  South 
in  Am.  Hist., 
24-49. 


Olmsted, 
Seaboard 
Slave  States, 
504-522, 
536-546. 


Callander, 
Ch.  VII. 


Kettell, 
Southern 
Wealth  and 
Northern 
Profits. 


236      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

tion  of  slaves  was  declining  in  the  border  states,  but  increas- 
ing farther  south  where  climate  and  staple  crops  combined 
to  render  this  a  highly  profitable  form  of  labor.  Some 
three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  planters  made  up  the 
slave-holding  class.  They  represented  not  more  than  5 
or  6  per  cent  of  the  white  population,  but  they  exercised 
a  dominating  influence  in  the  politics  of  the  South  and 
of  the  nation.  The  non-slaveholders  of  the  slave  states 
were  the  small  farmers  of  the  hill  country  and  the  poor 
whites,  crackers,  and  sand  lappers  of  the  plains.  For  these  ♦ 
there  was  no  place  in  the  industrial  order.  To  work  for 
hire  was  to  lose  caste,  and  the  opportunities  for  self-em- 
ployed labor  were  few  and  precarious.  The  poor  whites 
managed  to  live  off  the  produce  of  their  inferior  lands, 
or  earned  a  comfortable  salary  as  slave-overseers. 

Industrial  Backwardness  of  the  South 

The  census  tables  indicate  higher  per  capita  wealth  in 
the  South  Central  than  in  the  North  Central  section,  but 
the  comparison  is  misleading,  for  the  slaves  were  reckoned   r 
as  property.    The  estimate  under  this  category  for  1 860  was 
$4,000,000,000,  reducing  the  property  of  the  South  Cen- 
tral, invested  in  land  and  improvements  thereon,  to  less 
than  the  Northern  total.     The  wealth  of  the  North  Cen- 
tral section  represented  farms,  factories,  shipping  and  rail- 
roads, and  was  more  evenly  divided  among  a  more  numer- 
ous population.     In  matter  of  fact,  the  planters  of  the  new 
South,  in  spite  of  their  immense  output  and  magnificent 
revenues,  were  being  steadily  impoverished.     The  money 
received  for  each  season's  crops  was    immediately  dis- 
patched to  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  for  plantation 
suppUes,  to  the  old  South  for  new  relays  of  slaves,  to  New 
England  and  abroad  for  manufactures  and  luxuries  of 
various  sorts.    Many  of  the  estates  were  heavily  mort- 
gaged,  and   few  were  self-sustaining.    There  was  Uttle 
opportunity  and  less  desire  for  the  accumulation  of  capi- 
tal, and  without  capital  manufactures  and  transi)ortation 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     237 

facilities  cannot  be  undertaken,  and  agriculture  will  be 
carried  on  in  hand-to-mouth  fashion. 

Per  Cent  of  Farm  Land  Improved 


Year 

U.S. 

N.  Atl. 

S.  Atl. 

N.  Cent.   S.  Cent. 

1850  .  .  . 
i860  .  .  . 

38-5 
40.1 

61.6 
63.8 

32.1 
32.8 

42.6 
48.5 

28.4 
27.9 

Agriculture.  —  The  planters  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  had  no  share  in  the  agricultural  improvements  of  the 
ante-bellum  period.     Tillage  by  slave  labor  was  necessarily 
crude,  and  the  methods  extensive  rather  than  intensive. 
Machinery  could  not  be  used  to  advantage  because  the 
laborers  were  careless  and  unintelhgent.     A  cheap  wooden 
plow  drawn  by  mule  or  ox,  a  hoe,  and  a  broadax  were  the 
only  implements   with  which  the  field  hands   could  be 
trusted.     The   contrast   in   the   equipment   of   Northern 
and  Southern  agriculture  is  evident  in  the  census  statistics. 
The  money  value  of  agricultural  implements  and  machinery 
averaged  in  1850  thirty-seven  cents  per  acre  in  the  Southern 
states,  and  seventy-seven  in  the  Northern.     In  i860  the 
difference  was  still  greater,  the  average  value  per  acre  being 
forty-two  cents  in  the  Southern  and  ninety-four  cents  in 
the  Northern  states.     Conservation  of  the  soil  by  the 
appUcation  of  manures  and  fertilizers,  rotation  of  crops, 
and  the  introduction  of  new  seeds  seemed  so  difficult  that 
few  planters  undertook  to  improve  on  antiquated  processes. 
The  simpler  method  was  to  abandon  the  cultivation  of 
exhausted  soils  and  clear  new  land.     So  usual  was  this 
practice,  that  a  field  entirely  free  from  stumps  was  thought 
less  fertile  and  actually  brought  a  lower  price  in  the  market 
than  land  cluttered  with  the  debris  of  the  forest.     The 
proportion  of  improved  land  was  steadily  increasing  in 
the  Northern  sections  of  the  country,  while  in  the  Southern 
it  was  sUghtly  declining. 


Ingle, 
Ch.  II. 

Goodloe, 
Resources  of 
the  Southern 
States. 

Hildreth, 
Despotism 
in  America, 
Ch.  III. 

U.  S.  Census, 

igoo, 

V,  xzzz. 


Martineau, 
I,  299-306- 


Weston, 
Progress  of 
Slavery, 
Ch.  XV. 


Ingle, 
S6,  57,  59- 

Census, 
1909,  V, 
xxxiv. 


De  Bow, 

II,  397-399 ; 

m, 

195-207, 

266—269, 

285-299. 


238      Industrial  History  ef  the  United  States 

Diversification  of  crops  was  being  continually  urged  by 
the  friends  of  Southern  agriculture,  but  it  was  well-nigh 
impossible  to  act  on  such  advice.  The  cultivation  of 
fruits,  vegetables,  and  grain  required  more  skill  and  in- 
telligence than  the  average  plantation  could  furnish. 
The  planters  of  Louisiana  were  unable  to  raise  even  the 
slave  rations,  and  were  fain  to  purchase  corn  meal,  pork, 
and  salt  beef  from  the  thrifty  farmers  north  of  the  Ohio 
River.  In  the  production  of  Uve  stock,  spite  of  climatic 
advantages,  the  South  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  country 
as  a  whole.  Swine  and  mules  flourished  in  the  open  and 
managed  to  fatten  on  acorns  and  standing  fodder,  but 
cattle  and  horses  deteriorated  for  lack  of  care. 

Crop  StatiStiis 


Year 

Rice 

Tobacco 

Sugar 

Cotton 

1840     .     .     . 
1850     .     .     . 
i860     .     .     . 

lb. 
89,000,000 
'215,000,000 
187,000,000 

lb. 
219,000,000 
199,000,000 
434,000,000 

hhd. 

247,000 
240,000 

bales 

2,469,093 
5,387,052 

^ 


Southern  landowners  found  most  money  gain  in  grow- 
ing the  great  staples  which  could  be  planted  and  harvested 
by  gangs  of  slaves  and  by  wholesale  methods.  Tobacco 
was  the  principal  crop  of  the  northern  tier  of  Southern 
states  —  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
Kentucky,  and  Missouri.  Rice  was  still  cultivated  in  the 
swamp  lands  of  the  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  coast, 
cotton  on  the  uplands  of  the  interior.  The  southern  half 
of  Louisiana  was  given  over  to  sugar  culture.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  cotton  was  being  pushed  westward  on  to  the  black 
soils  of  northern  and  central  Texas,  for  the  exhausted  soils 
of  the  Atlantic  states  bore  diminishing  harvests.  Even  the 
fertile  alluvial  plains  bordering  on  the  Gulf  were  wearing 
out.     The  production  of  rice  and  sugar,  crops  confined  to 


^  -{/u. 


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V 

-■■*. 

'*^^**"***''''s'Wl^PBI(gMBBQM?w 

5 

Cotton  Production 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     239 

a  limited  area,  was  evidently  falling  off.     The  increase  in  fl 
tobacco  was  due  to  the  extension  of  this  culture  to  new 
soils  in  the  West  as  well  as  in  the  South.     The  real  gains  De  Bow, 
in  Southern  agriculture  become  apparent  in  the  statistics  ^*  121-152 
of  cotton  production.    This  crop  had  doubled  with  every 
decade  from  1800  to  1840.     Between  1840  and  i860  the 
output  was  trebled.     In  182 1  two  thirds  of  the  cotton  crop 
was  grown  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard ;  but  with  the  west- 
ern extension  of  cotton  culture,  the  proportions  were  re- 
versed.    In  1830, 64.4  per  cent,  and  in  i860,  77.5  per  cent, 
of  this  staple  was  grown  west  of  the  mountains.     South 
Carolina  produced  28  per  cent  of  the  total  crop  in  182 1, 
15  per  cent  in  1834,  12  per  cent  in  1850,  and  6.6  per  cent 
in  i860.    The  planters  of  both  Texas  and  Arkansas  were 
producing  in  i860  larger  crops  than  the  state  that  had 
begun  the  cultivation  of  cotton  seventy  years  before. 

Statistics  of  Cotton  Production 


De  Bow, 
I,  123. 


U.  S.  Census, 

IQOO, 

VI,  425- 


State 


1^ 


South  Carolina 
Georgia  .  .  . 
Virginia  .  .  . 
Tennessee  .  . 
North  Carolina 
Louisiana  .'  . 
Alabama  .  . 
Mississippi  .  . 
Arkansas  .  . 
Texas  .  .  . 
Florida    .     .     . 


Total 


1834 


bales 

130,000 

150,000 

20,000 

90,000 

18,000 

124,000 

170,000 

170,000 

1,000 


873,000 


1850 


bales 
300,901 
499,091 

3,947 

194,532 

73,845 

178,737 

564,429 

484,292 

65,344 
58,072 

45,130 
2,469,093 


x86o 


bales 
353,412 
701 ,840 

12,727 
296,464 

145,514 
777,738 

989,955 
1,202,507 

367,393 

431,463 

65,153 


5,387,052   JKft^  JcT^^  ^ 


Manufactures.  —  The   economic   relations   that    Great  Ingle, 
Britain  had  once  undertaken  to  estabUsh  by  commercial  ^^-  ^^^• 
restrictions,  Southern  planters  were  now  fulfilling  of  their 


240      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


De  Bow, 

I,  123,  177. 
191,  198. 


De  Bow, 
I,  211-223, 
229-242. 


De  Bow, 
III,  33-36. 


Ingle, 
75-76. 

De  Bow, 
I,  231-232. 


own  accord.  They  were  devoting  all  available  capital 
and  labor  to  producing  the  raw  material  of  English  manu- 
factures. Their  great  staple  supplied  the  cotton  factories 
of  Old  England  with  1,247,000  bales  in  1840,  and  2,669,000 
bales  in  i860.  In  spite  of  many  efforts  to  foster  cotton 
culture  in  India,  Egypt,  and  Brazil,  England  was  still 
dependent  on  the  American  supply,  but  she  found  a  com- 
pensating advantage  in  the  increasing  market  for  cheap 
cotton  goods  on  the  plantations  of  the  Southern  states. 
The  cotton  manufacturers  of  New  England  were  no  less 
convenienced  by  the  predilection  of  the  South  for  agri- 
culture and  her  neglect  of  manufactures. 

In  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  ratio  of 
manufactures  to  population  was  higher  in  the  Southern 
states  than  in  New  England.     For   cotton   manufacture 
the  South  had  great  natural  advantages  in  that  the  raw 
material  might  be  had  direct  from  the  gin  without  the  cost 
of  transportation  and  the  factor's  commission  paid  by 
English  and  by  Northern  mills.    Water  power  was  abundant 
along  the  "  fall  line,"  and  extensive  deposits  of  coal  offered 
fuel  for  steam  power  at  low  cost.     Labor,  too,  was  plenti- 
ful and  cheap.     Free  white  operatives  might  be  had  at 
less  than  one  half  the  wage  paid  in  the  Northern  factories. 
Slaves  could  be  hired  at  still  lower  rates,  and  they  proved 
to  have  sufficient  skill  to  operate  the  spinning  mules  and 
even  the  looms.    The  advantages  of  converting  slaves 
to  this  use  were  thus  stated  by  a  Southern  writer :   "     ot- 
ton  growers,  who  have  owned  sla\  es  long,  know  they  are 
capable  of  making  efficient  operatives;  and  when  once 
learned,  they  are  fixed,  permanent,  and  valuable.     This 
brahch  of  the  business  furnishes  profitable  employment 
on  cotton  to  a  portion  of  the  field  force,  which  relieves  the 
soil  to  that  extent  which  is  now  wasting  away  from  over- 
fatigue.    It  gives  scope  to  all  the  mechanical  talent  among 
the  slaves,  both  males  and  females  —  men  in  the  machine 
shops,  and  women  among  the  mules,  throstles,  and  looms." 
In  spite  of  these  evident  advantages,  there  were  but  few 
cotton  mills  in  the  "black  belt."    Of  the  miUion  and  a 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     241 


quarter  spindles  operated  in  the  United  States  in  1840, 
but  181,000  belonged  to  the  South.  In  1850  the  South 
could  boast  but  242,000  spindles  out  of  three  and  a  half 
million;  in  i860,  but  290,359  out  of  five  and  a  quarter 
million.  The  few  successful  mills  were  spinning  yarn  for 
Northern  looms  or  weaving  the  coarse  cloth  that  was  to 
be  printed  in  the  calico  works  of  New  England.  Southern 
entrepreneurs  were  no  less  sluggish  respecting  their  op- 
portunity for  leather  manufactures.  Massachusetts  was 
sending  into  the  South  each  year  $5,000,000  worth  of  shoes, 
a  good  part  of  which  were  made  of  hides  tanned  outside  of 
New  England. 

The  iron  works  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  had  been 
maintained  without  interruption  from  colonial  days  far 
into  the  nineteenth  century,  but  the  mountaineers  who 
worked  the  iron  ore  of  the  Appalachian  Range  held  to  the 
rude  and  wasteful  methods  of  the  pioneers.  They  could 
not  compete  with  modern  furnaces,  and  produced  only 
domestic  utensils  and  agricultural  implements  for  local 
trade.  An  enterprising  Yankee,  Daniel  Pratt,  went  to 
Alabama  in  the  forties,  and  undertook  the  construction 
of  cotton  gins,  saw,  grist,  and  flour  mills  for  the  Southern 
market.  In  the  manufacture  of  machinery  too  bulky  to 
bear  the  cost  of  transportation  he  made  a  great  success; 
but,  in  general,  the  iron  manufactures  of  the  North  were 
far  cheaper.  The  South  developed  no  first-rate  iron  or 
steel  works  before  the  Civil  War.  Vast  deposits  of  high- 
grade  bituminous  coal  were  treasured  in  the  southern 
Appalachians,  but  the  amount  mined  was  inconsiderable 
when  compared  with  the  output  of  the  Northern  states. 


U.  S.  Census, 

i860, 

Maimfac- 

tures, 

xi-xiv. 


U.  S.  Census. 
i860, 
Manufac- 
tures, 
kvii-kviii. 


Swank, 
Ch.XXX. 


U.  S.  Census, 
i860. 
Manufac- 
tures, 
ccxiv-ccxvi. 


Coal  Production 

Year 

South 

North 

1840 

i860 

bush.? 
11,711,073 
34,103,727 

bush. 
15,892,152 
110,273,200 

De  Bow, 
n,  435-454. 
473- 


II    I 


I 

1    I 


Goodloe, 
117- 


i 


De  Bow, 
II,  187. 


Ingle, 
Ch.  IV. 


242      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

Railroads  could  be  built  through  the  seaboard  and  Gulf 
states  at  half  the  cost  of  construction  in  the  North  Atlantic 
section.  The  plains  and  foothills  of  the  South  offered 
sUght  physical  difficulties,  timber  and  iron  for  laying  the 
track  might  be  had  along  the  Une  of  route,  while  slave 
labor  cost  only  twenty  cents  a  day.  Nevertheless,  Southern 
railroads  were  built  but  slowly.  The  cherished  projtrct  of 
connecting  Charleston  with  the  Mississippi  River  was  not 
accomplished  until  1858.  Moreover,  the  transportation 
facihties  on  the  Southern  roads  were  inferior  and  charges 
higher  than  on  the  Northern  Unes. 

Commerce.  —  The  first  American  steamer  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  had  sailed  from  Savannah,  but  no  packet  lines 
ran  from  Southern  ports.     The  enormous  export  trade 
in  cotton  was  carried  on  in  Northern  or  English  vessels. 
Between  1840  and  i860  Southern  shipyards  built  but  ten 
per  cent  of  the  total  output  of  the  United  States,  and  their 
vessels  were  small  side  or  stern  wheelers  intended  for  the 
coastwise  and  river  trade.     "  The  South,  while  producing 
a  majority  of  the  exports,  owned  less  than  a  fifth  of  the 
shipping  of  the  Union,  and  brought  to  the  country  only 
one  ninth  of  the  imports."    There  was  no  lack  of  raw 
materials  for  shipbuilding.     The   South  possessed   inex- 
haustible forests  of  pine,  oak,  and  locust,  so  that  masts  and 
spars,  turpentine  and  pitch,  might  be  had  for  from  one  half 
to  one  tenth  the  price  at  New  York,  Newport,  or  Boston. 
Hemp  for  cordage  was  abundant,  and  iron  ore  suitable  for 
anchors  and  cables  existed  in  vast  quantities.     Southern- 
ers were,  however,  slow  to  develop  new  enterprises,  and  the 
benefits  of  government  action  in  behalf  of  shipping,  com- 
merce, etc.,  accrued  chiefly  to  the  North.     The  b(3nus  of 
from  one  to  two  dollars  per  ton  on  fishing  vessels  went  to 
the  fishermen  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine,  the  former 
securing  $7,926,000  and  the  latter  $4,175,000  out  of  the 
$13,000,000  dispensed  between  1789  and  i860.     For  the 
same  reasons,  the  subsidized  steamship  lines  belonged  to 
the  Northern  ports.     Charleston  subscribed  stock  for  an 
Atlantic  Steam  Navigation  Company,  and  Virginia  pro- 


1 


'v 


i 


CtvnOxV  Traffic 


'i 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     243 

posed  a  subsidy  for  the  Franco-American  line,  but  these 
and  other  projects  came  to  naught.  Despite  their  cotton 
trade,  the  tonnage  of  the  principal  ports,  Charleston  and 
New  Orleans,  was  declining.  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
Baltimore,  by  building  railroads  and  canals,  had  arrogated 
to  themselves  the  commerce  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
With  the  decUne  of  trade,  customs  revenues  fell  off,  and 
government  expenditure  in  the  way  of  collection  was  re- 
duced. Appropriations  for  internal  improvements,  the 
dredging  of  rivers  and  harbors,  the  building  of  break- 
waters, etc.,  were  usually  made  at  the  instance  of  the  more 
enterprising  communities  to  the  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  Une. 

Before  the  end  of  this  era  of  expansion  the  economic    * 
divergence  between  North  and   South  had   become   so 
marked  as  to  give  rise  to  considerable  jealousy.     Some- 
thing quite  analogous  to  a  nonimportation  association  was 
projected  by  the  business  men  of  Mobile.     A  circular 
issued  in  the  last  decade  before  the  war  urged  upon  pa- 
triotic citizens    that    they  patronize    Southern   industry  DeBow, 
and  discriminate  against  the  products  of  the  rival  section,   ^^i' 
English  goods  and  commercial  houses  were  to  be  preferred   ^^^~"^' 
to  those  of  the  North. 


Territorial  Expansion 

Exploitation  of  the  soil  such  as  was  practiced  in  the 
slave-holding  states  could  not  long  maintain  a  growing 
population.  The  younger  and  more  enterprising  of  the 
Southern  planters  had  been  carrying  their  slaves  into  Texas, 
where  land  might  be  obtained  in  vast  tracts  and  where  a  soil 
of  astonishing  fertility  enabled  them  to  recoup  their  de- 
clining fortunes.  By  1830  the  Americans  outmmibered 
the  Spanish  population,  and  the  Mexican  government  be- 
came seriously  concerned  lest  this  rich  province  pass  from 
its  control.  A  series  of  restrictive  measures,  e.g.  the  aboU- 
tion  of  slavery,  the  prohibition  of  the  importation  of  slaves, 
and  the  denial  of  the  right  of  settlement  to  free  persons 


Hittell, 
History  of 
California, 
II  375-469- 


244      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

from  the  United  States,  were  disregarded  by  the  invaders 
who  had  slight  respect  for  the  Spanish  authorities.  Matters 
were  brought  to  a  crisis  in  1835,  when  the  invaders  declared 
the  independence  of  Texas  and  set  up  an  autonomous 
repubUc.  Southern  congressmen  gladly  utilized  this 
opportunity  to  annex  the  revolted  province,  and  although 
the  measure  was  vigorously  opposed  by  Northern  states- 
men, who  deplored  any  extension  of  slave  territory,  the 
slave  interest  triumphed.  During  the  ensuing  war  two 
American  armies  marched  through  the  heart  of  the  enemy's 
country,  capturing  Chihuahua,  Vera  Cruz,  and  the  C!ity 
of  Mexico,  and  a  third,  the  Army  of  the  West,  struck 
through  the  Northern  provinces,  taking  possession  of  Santa 
Fe  and  San  Diego.  Nowhere  was  there  any  effective  re- 
sistance, and  in  the  treaty  of  Guadaloupe  Hidalgo  (1848), 
Mexico  was  forced  to  yield  all  the  territory  north  of  the 
Rio  Grande  and  Gila  rivers  upon  the  payment  of  $15,000,- 
ocxD  indemnity.  The  Wilmot  Proviso,  stipulating  that 
slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  all  territory  that  might  be 
acquired  from  Mexico,  failed,  and  a  vast  area  was  opened 
up  to  the  enterprise  of  slave  owners. 

Upper  California  had  long  been  coveted  by  certain 
Western  senators  who  knew  something  of  the  rich  resources 
of  the  country  and  the  weakness  of  the  Mexican  rule. 
For  twenty  years  a  flourishing  trade  had  been  carried  on 
between  Boston  and  the  Calif ornian  ports,  San  Diego,  San 
Pedro,  Santa  Barbara,  and  Monterey,  dry  goods  and 
groceries  being  exchanged  for  hides  and  tallow  from  the 
cattle  ranches.  A  few  American  merchants  and  sailors 
had  become  domiciled  at  one  or  another  of  the  coast  towns, 
and  they  sent  back  to  their  friends  glowing  accounts  of 
soil  and  chmate  and  of  the  fortunes  to  be  made  in  the  un- 
exploited  commercial  and  agricultural  resources  of  the 
country.  Moreover,  trappers  and  Indian  traders,  and, 
latterly,  a  few  emigrants,  had  found  their  way  across  the 
Sierras.  There  were  some  five  thousand  Americans  set- 
tled in  the  province  when  war  with  Mexico  was  declared, 
and  they  lent  active  aid  to  the  cause  of  the  United  States. 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     245 

Hardly  had  the  annexation  of  California  been  ratified,  Hittell, 
when  the  discovery  of  nuggets  and  scales  of  virgin  gold  in  the  ^^  682-698, 
river  drift  near  Sutter's  Fort  precipitated  a  westward  move- 
ment very  different  in  character  from  any  that  had  taken 
place  since  the  sixteenth  century.  A  horde  of  adventurers, 
young  men  for  the  most  part,  rushed  to  the  El  Dorado 
on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Gold  to  the  amount  of  $5,000,000 
was  taken  from  the  placers  of  the  Sacramento  Valley  in 
1848  by  the  five  thousand  men  who  were  first  on  the 
ground.  During  the  next  year  fifty  thousand  people 
made  their  way  to  California.  They  came  from  all  parts 
of  the  world:  Sonorians  and  ChiUans  from  the  Spanish 
republics,  Chinese  and  Malays  from  the  Orient,  Kanakas 
from  the  Sandwich  Islands,  "  colony  men  "  from  Australia ; 
but  the  strength  and  sinew  of  the  migration  was  from 
England,  Germany,  and  the  Eastern  states.  Some  of  the 
"  forty-niners  "  braved  the  four  months'  voyage  round  the 
Horn,  others  took  advantage  of  the  newly  established 
steamship  lines  to  Colon  and  San  Francisco;  but  the 
penurious  and  foolhardy  Westerners  made  their  hazardous 
way  along  the  Oregon  Trail  to  Fort  Bridger,  and  thence 
across  the  Great  American  Desert  and  over  the  Sierra 
Range  to  the  gold  diggings.  Once  arrived  in  the  land 
of  gold,  the  treasure  seekers  scattered  over  the  foothills 
from  the  Merced  River  to  the  Trinity,  searching  the  river 
wash  for  the  golden  gravel  that  made  men  mad.  Some 
"  struck  it  rich  "  and  returned  home  to  invest  their  easily 
gotten  wealth,  but  the  average  "  take  "  did  not  exceed 
$1000  a  year,  and  barely  sufficed  to  meet  Uving  and  travel- 
ing expenses.  By  official  estimate  $40,000,000  worth  of  mtteU, 
gold  was  exported  in  1849  ^^^  $50,000,000  in  1850,  and  ^^^  414- 
it  is  probable  that  one  fourth  the  findings  were  not  reported 
to  the  government.  The  maximum  production  was 
reached  in  1853,  when  the  value  of  the  gold  output  was 
$65,000,000.  Then  it  became  apparent  that  the  surface 
diggings  were  nearly  exhausted  and  that  deep  mining  and 
more  costly  methods  must  be  resorted  to  if  California 
was  to  remain  the  golden  state. 


246      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Linn,  Story 
of  the 
Mormons, 
378-409. 


Brough, 
Irrigation 
in  Utah, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


Greenhow, 
History  of 
Oregon. 


Wyeth, 
Journal. 


Bancroft, 
Oregon. 


Utah.  —  At  Salt  Lake,  on  the  edge  of  the  Great  Basin, 
the  "  forty-niners "  came  upon  a  Mormon  settlement. 
The  first  Saints  had  migrated  from  Council  Bluffs  in  the 
summer  of  1847,  treking  up  the  north  bank  of  the  Platte 
River  (by  what  came  to  be  known  as  the  Mormon  Trail) 
to  Fort  Bridger,  and  thence  across  the  Wasatch  Range 
to  the  desert  interior.  The  region  had  been  thought 
hopeless  by  all  previous  explorers,  but  the  sage  brush 
plains  proved  highly  fertile  under  irrigation.  The  settlers 
put  up  sawmills  and  gristmills,  woolen  factories  and  iron 
works,  and  were  soon  able  to  supply  themselves  with  all 
the  necessities  of  Ufe.  Few  Mormons  joined  in  the  rush  to 
California.  They  found  a  surer  means  of  making  money 
in  providing  food  and  transportation  to  the  desperate 
gold  seekers.  In  the  winter  of  1 848-1 849  there  were  five 
thousand  people  in  Utah,  and  the  leaders  of  the  church 
had  organized  a  system  of  emigration  by  which  thousands 
of  converts  were  brought  every  year  from  Great  Britain, 
Germany,  and  Scandinavia  to  the  new  Zion  beyond  the 
Rockies. 

Oregon.  —  From  the  day  when  Astor's  trading  post  was 
abandoned  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  Columbia 
River  region  had  been  coveted  by  Americans.  Jedidiah 
Smith,  Sublette,  and  other  bold  spirits  trapped  and  traded 
in  the  disputed  territory  and  brought  their  spoils  to  St. 
Louis ;  but  not  till  1832  was  there  any  attempt  to  establish 
trading  posts.  In  that  year  Nathaniel  J.  Wyeth  with 
a  party  of  Massachusetts  men  followed  the  fur  traders' 
route  to  Fort  Vancouver  on  the  Columbia.  Convinced 
of  the  rich  possibilities  of. the  country,  Wyeth  built  Fort 
Hall  on  the  Snake  River  and  began  a  farm  colony  on  an 
island  at  the  junction  of  the  Willamette  and  the  Columbia. 
Four  years  later  Dr.  Marcus  Whitman  conducted  a  mis- 
sionary expedition  over  the  same  route  to  the  Walla  Walla 
and  proved  the  Oregon  Trail  practicable  for  women  and 
wagons.  Reports  of  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the  lower 
Columbia  and  Willamette  valleys  were  sent  back  to  the 
"  states,"  and  thousands  of  emigrants  turned  their  faces 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     247 

to  this  region.     In  June,  1843,  a  caravan  of  two  hundred 
wagons  left  Westport  for  the  long  overland  journey.     It 
was  the  beginning  of  a  great  migration.     The  characteristic 
vehicle  was  a  heavy  four-wheeled  cart  with  canvas  cover, 
very  Hke  the  conistogas  of  an  earlier  day.     The  women 
and  children  with  provisions  and  camping  kit  were  carried 
in  the  wagons,  while  the  men  rode  horseback  or  walked 
alongside.     The  night  encampment  was  strictly  guarded 
lest  a  foraging  band  of  Indians  capture  the  horses  and  oxen. 
Dr.  Whitman  had  represented  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
the   necessity   of   establishing   military   stations   at   con- 
venient points  for  the  purpose  of  providing  supplies  and 
protection  to  the  emigrants,  and  in  this  same  year  Colonel 
Fremont  was  sent  out  to  reconnoiter  the  route.     He  found 
a  well-beaten  trail  and  roadside  camps  the  whole  distance 
from  Westport  to  Fort  Hall.     "The  edge  of  the  wood,   Fremont, 
for  several  miles  along  the  [Bear]  River,  was  dotted  with  ^^p^-  ?^ 
the  white  covers  of  emigrant  wagons,  collected  in  groups  ExSSon 
at  different  camps,  where  the  smokes  were  rising  lazily  to  Oregon, 
from  the  fires,  around  which  the  women  were  occupied   ^^^' 
in  preparing  the  evening  meal ;  and  the  children  playing 
in  the  grass,  and  herds  of  cattle  grazing  about  in  the  bot- 
tom, had  an  air  of  quiet  security  and  civilized  comfort, 
that  made  a  rare  sight  for  the  traveler  in  such  a  remote 
wildernesss." 

Before  the  autumn  of  1845  three  thousand  emigrants 
had  followed  this  road  to  Oregon.  Houses  and  cattle  and 
plowed  fields  drove  the  beaver  from  their  haunts  and 
threatened  the  extinction  of  the  fur  trade.  Dr.  McLough- 
lin,  chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  at  Fort 
Vancouver,  was  most  hospitable  to  the  settlers,  hoping 
that  they  would  develop  the  fertile  region  south  of  the 
Columbia  and  furnish  grain  and  other  supplies  for  the 
Alaskan  posts.  But  the  Americans  were  not  content  to 
be  governed  by  a  trade  monopoly,  however  benevolent, 
and  they  demanded  a  republican  government  under  the 
protection  of  the  United  States.  The  emigrant  trains 
came  steadily  on,  and  Great  Britain  was  finally  forced 


I 


Wilson,  Hist. 
Pennsylva- 
nia Railway, 
Vol.  I. 


248      IndusU'ial  History  of  the  United  States 

to  surrender  the  land  to  the  actual  occupants.  The  Ash- 
burton  Treaty  (1846)  secured  the  coast  from  the  California 
boundary  to  the  49th  parallel  to  the  United  States. 

The  population  of  the  Cordilleran  and  Pacific.  Coast 
settlements  amounted  in  i860  to  more  than  five  hundred 
thousand,  but  the  slave  owners  were  few.  The  character 
of  the  settlers  as  well  as  the  nature  of  climate  and  economic 
resources,  rendered  the  region  unsuited  to  slavery.  There 
was  no  use  for  slaves  in  the  mines,  on  the  sheep  and  cattle 
ranches,  or  in  diversified  agriculture.  The  Far  West 
offered,  on  the  contrary,  many  promising  opportunities 
for  free  labor  and  self-employment.  Irrigation  required 
a  degree  of  intelligence  and  a  capacity  for  forethought 
that  could  only  be  found  in  the  free  landed  proprietor. 

Through  Routes  to  the  West 

The  westward  movement  of  population  necessitated 
improved  transportation  faciUties.  The  three  trans- 
Aileghany  canals  had  brought  passengers  and  goods  to 
the  Ohio  River  and  Lake  Erie,  but  by  slow  and  uncertain 
stages.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  reached  west- 
ward-flowing water  at  Wheeling  in  1853.  New  York 
had  a  roundabout  connection  with  Buffalo  by  1842,  via 
the  Hudson  River  (which«was  frozen  over  during  the  winter 
months)  and  a  series  of  seven  independent  lines  reciuiring 
several  transfers.  The  New  York  and  Erie,  the  first  con- 
tinuous fine  built  across  the  state,  reached  Dunkirk  on  Lake 
Erie  in  185 1,  and  there  passengers  and  freight  for  points 
farther  west  were  transferred  to  steamers.  Philadelphia 
had  a  much  more  difficult  transportation  problem  than 
New  York,  since  the  height  of  the  range  in  Pennsylvania 
is  four  times  as  great  as  through  the  Mohawk  Pass,  The 
state  undertook  to  improve  on  the  canal  connection  already 
established  by  building  railways  along  the  more  practicable 
portions  of  the  route,  thus  reducing  the  time  required. 
The  building  of  an  all-rail  route  was  undertaken  by  a  pri- 
vate company  in  1846,  and  the  first  train  was  run  through 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     249 

to  Pittsburg  in  1852.  Boston  alone  of  the  great  Northern 
ports  failed  to  establish  a  through  line  to  the  West. 
Massachusetts  had  built  the  first  post  road,  the  first  canal, 
and  the  first  iron  tramway  (the  three-mile  fine  connecting 
the  granite  quarries  of  Quincy  with  tidewater),  but  her 
citizens  were  slow  to  invest  capital  in  the  locomotive. 
When  the  Boston  and  Worcester  road  was  finally  opened, 
it  amounted  to  little  more  than  ''  a  forty  mile  extension 
of  Boston  wharf."  New  England's  railway  system  was 
purely  local,  centering  in  ''  the  Hub."  The  Great  Western 
Railway  was  only  with  difficulty  and  by  state  aid  carried 
through  to  Albany  (1841),  and  was  operated,  not  in  con- 
nection with  the  Boston  and  Worcester,  but  under  an  in- 
dependent and  antagonistic  management.  Even  when 
the  two  fines  were  finally  consolidated  into  the  Boston  and 
Albany  Railroad  (1866),  the  all-important  through  route 
to  the  West  was  not  achieved.  The  Buffalo  and  Albany 
was  financed  from  New  York,  and  its  management  was 
not  concerned  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  rival 
port. 

Railroad  construction  in  the  West  began  with  the  build- 
ing of  a  line  from  Detroit  to  Ann  Arbor  in  1838.  The 
legislature  of  Michigan  undertook  to  carry  three  railroads 
across  the  state  from  Port  Huron,  Detroit,  and  Munroe 
to  Lake  Michigan ;  but  the  routes  lay  through  virgin  forest, 
and  traffic  could  not  pay  running  expenses.  The  state 
management  was  inefficient,  and  the  enterprise  was  finally 
(1850)  made  over  to  private  companies.  The  Northwest 
was  wholly  agricultural,  towns  were  few  and  far  between, 
and  traffic  was  light.  In  1850  there  was  but  one  mile 
of  track  for  each  19,000  of  population  in  the  states  of 
Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  and  Missouri,  while 
New  England  boasted  one  mile  of  railroad  to  4000 
people.  In  the  next  decade  a  mania  for  railroads 
seized  the  new  West.  Roads  were  built  in  advance  of 
traffic,  and  the  mileage  was  rapidly  increased.  By  i860 
there  was  a  mile  of  railroad  for  every  912  of  the  popu- 
lation in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley. 


Adams, 
Railroads, 
Their  Origin 
and 
Problems. 


Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
Ch.  XXII. 


,   I 


I' 


i' 


Con.  Globe, 

1847-1848, 

Appendix, 

534-537, 

1137-1139. 


Sanborn, 
Cong. 
Grants  of 
Land  in  Aid 
of  Rys., 
Ch.  I,  II. 


Meyer, 
Railway 
Legislation, 
Pt.  II.  Ch.  I, 
Appendix  I. 

Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
346-347. 


U.  S.  Census, 
1880,  IV,    ' 
Rept.  on 
Roads,  12, 
289,  290. 


250      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Financing  of  the  Roads.  -  This  result  could  hardly 
have  been  achieved  without  national  assistance.     Several 
of  the  Eastern  roads  had  been  built  with  state  aid.     Mary- 
land  had  subscribed  $3,000,000  to  the  stock  of  the  Balti- 
more and  Ohio;   Massachusetts  had  loaned  $4,000,000  to 
the  Great  Western;    Pennsylvania,  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia  had  undertaken  to  linance  their  initial  roads. 
The  new  Western  states  were  hardly  adequate  to  these 
costly  enterprises,  and  they  appealed  to  Congress  for  aid. 
Following  the  precedent  of  land  grants  to  canal  projects 
Congress  made  over  (1850)  a  tract  of  two  million  seven 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  public  land  to  the  state  of 
Illinois  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  her  Central  Railway 
from  Chicago  to  Cah-o.     Similar  grants  were   made  to 
Florida  and  Alabama  and  Mississippi.    The  Mobile  and 
Ohio,  the  first  through  route  from  North  to  South,  was 
hkewise  built  with  the  proceeds  of  land  grants.     This  line 
together  with  the  Mississippi  Central,  was  carried  through 
tL  Civ^l  wt '^^^"'^^^^  ^^^  ^'^''  immediately  {^receding 

These  early  railways  were,  with  few  exceptions,  built 
by  joint  stock  companies  chartered  by  the  state  legislatures 
The  charter  was  essential   to   the  incorporation  of  the 
stockholders  and  to  the  securing  of  the  right  of  way 
Land  for  the  laying  of  the  track  was  usually  given,  both 
public  and  private  owners  regardmg  the  advantage  accru- 
ing from  improved  transportation  as  full  compensation 
for  such  concessions.     The  older  states  imposed  certain 
stipulations  mtended  to  guard  the  interests  of  the  com- 
mumties  to  be  served.     The  rate  of  dividend  was  limited 
(to  ten  per  cent  in  New  England,  to  twelve  per  cent  in 
Pennsylvama)  by  the  provision  that  excess  profits  must  be 
divided  with  the  state  or  charges  reduced.     Freight  and 
passenger  rates  were  to  be  held  within  a  fixed  maximum - 
six,  five,  four,  and  three  cents  a  mile  for  passengers  five 
three,  and  two  cents  per  ton  mile  on  freight.    The' term 
of  the  charter  was  limited,  and  in  some  cases,  e.g.  the 
Pennsylvama  Central,  the  state  reserved  the  right  to  pur- 


-RAILROAD 
CONSTRUCTION 

Pjom  1«30  to  I860 

.  1830  -  1840 

■     1840  -18^ 
'l8.->0-T8eo 


eCALt  Or   MILES 

I'X)         200         afto      '   4.10 


1 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs      251 


chase  and  operate  the  road  after  the  lapse  of  from  fifteen 
to  twenty-five  years.  In  the  first  decade  of  railway  con- 
struction, there  were  built  and  equipped  2264  miles  at  a 
cost  of  $100,000,000;  in  the  second  decade,  5045  miles 
at  a  cost  of  $250,000,000;  in  the  third  decade,  20,109 
miles  at  a  cost  of  $1,000,000,000. 

Little  of  this  enormous  expenditure  could  be  expected 
to  bring  in  an  immediate  return.  In  the  densely  populated 
and  highly  productive  sections  of  the  country,  a  railroad 
investment  might  net  a  handsome  revenue,  and  here  the 
average  rate  of  dividend  was  eight  and  one  half  per  cent. 
But  in  the  sparsely  settled  districts  of  the  West  and 
South,  investors  must  wait  a  score  of  years  for  their 
returns  and  run  the  risk  of  finding  their  stock  valueless 
in  the  end. 

To  the  community  at  large  the  railroad  was,  in  this  initial 
period,  an  unmixed  benefit.  Construction  created  a 
demand  for  rails  and  structural  iron  that  proved  a  boon 
to  the  forges  and  foundries,  while  track-laying,  machine 
and  car  shops,  gave  employment  to  an  army  of  laborers, 
skilled  and  unskilled.  The  new  transportation  system 
meant  enhanced  prices  for  crops  and  lands  all  along  the 
Une  of  the  road.  It  halved  the  cost  and  quartered  the 
time  of  journeying  by  stage,  and  brought  opportunity  for 
travel  within  reach  of  people  of  moderate  means.  The 
building  of  railroads  meant,  too,  the  extension  of  the  postal 
service  and  the  cheapening  of  postage.  The  government 
was  able  to  reduce  the  charge  of  sending  letters  from  ten, 
twenty-five,  and  fifty  cents  per  letter  to  a  uniform  rate 
of  three  cents. 

The  Electric  Telegraph.  —  Hand  in  hand  with  the  ex- 
tension of  railroads  went  the  system  of  communication  by 
telegraph.  The  sending  of  verbal  messages  along  an  elec- 
tric wire  had  been  rendered  practicable  by  S.  F.  B.  Morse, 
in  1835,  but  it  was  long  before  business  men  were  convinced 
that  this  was  a  promising  venture.  In  1844  Congress  ap- 
propriated $30,000  for  the  building  of  a  line  from  Wash- 
ington to  Baltimore.    The  following  year  a  Une  was  run 


De  Bow, 
n,  494- 


Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
339-342. 


Bym, 
Ch.  m. 


Jones, 
Sketch  of 
the  Electric 
Telegraph, 

ch.vin. 


Lardner, 

Electric 

Telegraph, 

ch.  xn. 


Lardner, 
Railway 
Economy, 
Ch.  XV. 


Inman, 
Great  Salt 
Lake  Trail, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Stimson, 

Express 

Business. 


252      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  by  a  private  company, 
and  the  system  was  soon  after  extended  to  Wilmington 
and  Baltimore.  Connections  between  New  York  and 
Boston,  New  York  and  Albany,  Albany  and  Buffalo,  were 
made  in  1846-1847.  In  1848  Ezra  Cornell  built  a  tele- 
graph line  from  New  York  to  Cleveland,  Toledo,  Detroit, 
Chicago,  and  Milwaukee.  In  the  same  year  a  line  was 
run  from  Washington  to  New  Orleans,  connecting  the  sea- 
board cities. 

The  installation  of  a  telegraph  line  is  a  far  simj>ler  and 
cheaper  enterprise  than  the  building  of  a  railroad,  and 
the  electric  wires  overspread  the  eastern  half  of  the  United 
States  with  marvelous  rapidity.  Communication  with 
the  Pacific  Coast  was  a  much  more  difficult  proi)osition. 
From  1852  to  i860  the  overland  mails  were  carried  by  the 
famous  Pony  Express  —  a  relay  system  of  rapid  riders  — 
via  the  Salt  Lake  Trail.  Encouraged  by  the  prospect  of 
a  subsidy  of  $40,000  per  year  from  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment, the  Western  Union  Company  carried  a  telegraph 
line  across  the  Cordilleran  Range  in  1861. 

Express  Companies.  —  It  was  a  Massachusetts  man, 
WilUam  F.  Harnsden,  who  inaugurated  the  business  of 
transporting  valuable  freight  under  private  guard.  He 
began  carrying  packages  between  New  York  and  Boston 
(1839)  in  his  own  valise,  deUvering  the  goods  in  person  to 
the  consignees.  The  trip  was  made  three  times  a  week, 
by  rail  to  Providence  and  thence  by  steamer  to  New  York ; 
but  the  business  developed  rapidly  and  he  soon  arranged  for 
an  express  car  and  a  special  cabin  on  the  Stonington  Steam- 
ship Line.  An  oflfice  was  opened  in  New  York  and  another 
in  Philadelphia,  and  a  Hudson  River  service  was  organized 
with  a  branch  office  at  Albany  (1841).  Henry  Wells,  the 
agent  at  Albany,  proposed  to  extend  the  service  to  Buffalo, 
but  to  Harnsden  this  seemed  too  hazardous  a  venture, 
and  the  western  business  was  organized  by  an  indej^endent 
company.  The  Albany  and  Buffalo  Express  covered  the 
distance  by  railroad  and  stage  in  four  nights  and  three  days, 
the  packages  being  packed  in  one  trunk  and  intrusted  to 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     2 S3 

Wells'  personal  supervision.  In  1845  Wells  and  Fargo 
started  the  Western  Express  to  Cincinnati,  Chicago, 
and  St.  Louis,  Fargo  acting  as  messenger.  The  company's 
stages  ran  far  in  advance  of  railroads  and  carried  thousands 
of  emigrants  and  their  outfits  into  the  frontier  settlements. 
The  charge  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  was  $4  per  hundred- 
weight, to  Detroit  $6,  and  to  St.  Louis  $8,  an  excess  of  $10 
being  added  for  winter  service.  Letters  were  carried  for 
five  cents  while  the  United  States  post-office  w^as  still  charg- 
ing twenty-five,  and  the  government  would  have  been 
driven  out  of  the  letter  carrying  business  throughout  the 
express  company's  territory  but  for  the  rimely  reduction 
in  the  price  of  stamps.  Money  also  was  transported  so 
securely  that  the  rate  of  exchange  between  New  York 
and  Chicago  fell  from  3  per  cent  to  the  mere  cost  of  trans- 
portation. 

Meantime  Harnsden,  ambitious  to  extend  his  special 
delivery  system  to  Europe,  had  made  arrangements  with 
the  Enoch  Train  Line  of  packet  ships  to  accommodate 
his  messengers  and  their  charge  and  established  offices  in 
Liverpool,  Havre,  and  Paris.  Not  goods  only,  but  pas- 
sengers, were  intrusted  to  the  care  of  the  company.  Ad- 
vertisements of  cheap  and  safe  transportation  from  Liver- 
pool to  New  York,  Buffalo,  and  Chicago  were  posted  in  all 
the  principal  towns  of  Great  Britain,  and  passenger  agents 
were  sent  through  Europe  to  solicit  patronage.  It  was 
Harnsden's  ambition  that  every  immigrant  arriving  in 
New  York  or  Boston  should  be  consigned  to  his  express 
company,  and  he  secured  control  of  the  bulk  of  the  steerage 
accommodations.  Fully  one  hundred  thousand  people  were 
brought  over  to  America  by  this  agency  in  the  first  five  years 
of  its  existence.  After  Harnsden's  death  (1845)  the  com- 
pany purchased  a  fine  of  steamships  to  run  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  another  for  the  coast  service,  touching  at 
Savannah,  Mobile,  New  Orieans,  and  Galveston  ;  but  these 
investments  proved  ill-advised.  The  management  got  into 
financial  difficulties  and  was  forced  to  merge  its  interests 
with  the  newly  organized  Adams  Express  Company  (1854). 


Hittell, 
Hist. 

California, 
IV,  380-400. 


Bolles,  n, 
Bk.  Ill,  Ch. 
VI,  VII. 

Bishop,  II, 
419-474- 

Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
109-154. 

Dewey,  237- 

239,  299-252, 

257-259. 
262-265. 

Rabbeno, 
184-199. 


254      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

In  1852  Wells  and  Fargo  sold  out  to  the  American  Ex« 
press  Company  and  transferred  their  enterprise  to  Cali- 
fornia. Goods  consigned  to  them  were  carried  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco  via  Panama  at  a  charge  of  forty 
cents  per  pound.  A  messenger  service  was  maintained 
with  every  mining  camp  in  the  Sierras,  and  gold  dust  col- 
lected from  the  diggings  was  transported  direct  to  New 
York  and  London.  The  Wells  T^argo  Express  Company 
received  $56,000,000  in  gold  in  1857,  of  which  sum  only 
$9,000,000  was  billed  to  the  Atlantic  states.  Letters  and 
camp  supplies  were  dispatched  to  the  miners  by  the  same 
trusty  messengers,  who  often  furnished  the  only  regular 
means  of  communication  with  the  civilized  world.  When 
the  Nevada  silver  deposits  were  opened  up.  Wells  Fargo 
built  a  stage  road  over  the  mountains  to  Virginia  City,  on 
which  six  to  eight  coaches  a  day  were  kept  busy  conveying 
passengers  up  to  the  mines  and  bulhon  down.  An  over- 
land stage  route  via  Santa  Fe  was  started  in  1858,  making 
a  run  of  twenty-five  days  between  St.  Louis  and  San  Diego. 
The  Overland  Stage  Une  via  Salt  Lake  was  taken  over  in 
1865,  and  thenceforward  Wells  Fargo  dominated  the  ex- 
press traffic  of  the  Cordilleran  region. 

Influence  of  Revenue  Tariffs 

This  period  of  industrial  expansion  was  coincident  with 
a  period  of  low  import  duties.  The  gradual  reduction 
of  the  tariff  provided  for  in  the  compromise  of  1833  had 
been  consistently  carried  out,  and  the  horizontal  scale  of 
20  per  cent  was  reached  in  1842.  This  minimum  tariff 
was  in  operation  but  two  months  (July  and  August),  and 
then  the  advocates  of  protection  secured  a  brief  lease  of 
power.  With  a  view  to  making  poKtical  capital  out  of 
benefits  conferred,  the  Whig  majority  in  Congress  enacted 
a  law  imposing  heavy  duties  on  salt,  glass,  iron,  cotton, 
woolen,  and  silk  manufactures,  industries  represented  in 
New  England  and  the  Middle  states.  The  West  was  in- 
different to  the  measure,  the  South  was  distinctly  hostile, 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     255 

and  the  unqualified  Democratic  victory  of  1844  gave  the 
opponents  of  protection  their  opportunity.  In  his  annual 
report  of  December,  1845,  R.  J.  Walker,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  demonstrated  that  the  prevaiUng  customs 
duties  imposed  a  tax  of  $81,000,000  upon  consumers  in  the 
way  of  enhanced  prices,  while  they  brought  to  the  govern- 
ment a  revenue  of  only  $27,000,000.  He  proposed  that 
tariff  legislation  should  be  determined  by  financial  con- 
siderations solely,  and  that  the  import  duties  should 
be  laid  in  accordance  with  sound  principles  of  taxation. 
Rates  should  be  fixed  at  the  point  that  would  insure  the 
maximum  return  over  and  above  the  cost  of  collection, 
protection  being  a  minor  consideration.  High  duties  might 
suitably  be  imposed  on  luxuries,  but  the  raw  materials  of 
manufacture  and  the  necessities  of  fife  should  be  admitted 
under  low  duties  or  placed  on  the  free  Ust.  The  argument 
that  protection  to  manufactures  insured  high  wages  to 
labor.  Walker  declared  to  be  delusive.  Wages  had  not 
risen  under  the  Whig  tariff,  but  the  cost  of  living  had 
certainly  been  advanced.  The  "  American  system " 
taxed  twenty  milHon  people  for  the  benefit  of  four  hundred 
thousand  operatives,  whose  opportunity  for  employment 
was  dearly  bought,  and  of  ten  thousand  manufacturers, 
who  were  reaping  a  higher  rate  of  profit  than  any  other 
class  in  the  community. 

Walker  beheved  that  the  reduction  of  our  import  duties 
on  manufactures  would  lead  to  the  repeal  of  the  EngUsh 
Corn  Laws  and  the  opening  of  British  ports  to  our  agri- 
cultural products.  The  reciprocal  trade  thus  engendered 
would  greatly  benefit  our  farmers  and  planters,  whose 
crops  of  wheat  and  cotton  had  outgrown  the  capacity 
of  the  home  market,  and  our  merchants,  who  must  profit 
from  the  augmentation  of  commerce.  In  the  debate  upon 
the  Democratic  tariff  bill,  the  antagonism  between  the 
manufacturing  and  agricultural  sections  of  the  country 
became  evident.  Reduction  of  the  protective  duties  was 
opposed  by  New  England  and  the  Middle  states,  but 
favored  by  the  farmers  and  planters  of  the  West  and  South. 


Thompson, 
Hist  of  Pro- 
tective Tariff 
Laws,  Ch. 
XXXIX, 
XL. 

Executive 
Documents, 
29th  Cong., 
I  St  Session, 
II,  No.  6. 


Stanwood, 
II,  Ch.  XI. 

Taussig, 
State  Papers 
and  Speeches 
on  the  Tariff 
214-251. 


Wages  and 

Prices, 

424-427- 


Stanwood, 
II.  Ch  XII. 


li 


Levi,  Hist, 
of  Brit. 
Commerce, 
Pt.  IV, 
Ch.  IV. 
9  and  lo 
Victoria, 

C.  22. 


De  Bow, 
1.96. 


256      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

In  the  Walker  Tariff  (July,  1846)  imports  were  classed 
under  four  principal  categories.  In  Schedule  A  were 
listed  injurious  luxuries,  such  as  absinthe,  brandy,  and  all 
other  Uquors  and  spirits.  On  these  a  revenue  duty  of 
100  per  cent  was  levied.  Schedule  B  comprised  other 
less  obnoxious  luxuries,  such  as  nuts,  spices,  sweetmeats, 
cigars,  snuff,  and  manufactured  tobacco.  Such  imports 
paid  a  high  revenue  duty  of  40  per  cent.  Schedule  C 
covered  with  a  30  per  cent  import  duty  the  industries  that 
might  reasonably  demand  protection,  such  as  pig  iron  and 
iron  manufactures,  wool  and  manufactures  of  wool,  ready- 
made  clothing  of  all  descriptions,  manufactures  of  leather, 
paper,  wood,  glass,  molasses,  and  sugar.  In  Schedule  I) 
were  classed  the  industries  now  fully  established,  such  as  low- 
grade  cottons,  woolens,  and  silks.  1  n  general  the  raw  mate- 
rials of  manufacture  paid  but  15  per  cent,  and  the  three 
cents  per  pound  duty  on  raw  cotton  was  finally  abandoned 
as  **  inoperative  and  delusive."  There  was  a  long  free  hst. 
Salt  for  the  first  time  in  our  national  history  was  admitted 
duty  free ;  tea  and  coffee,  the  luxuries  of  the  poor,  were 
left  untaxed  ;  the  interests  of  the  farmers  were  looked  after 
in  a  tax  of  30  per  cent  on  hemp  and  leaf  tobacco,  on  cheese, 
vegetables,  etc.  ;  the  interests  of  the  cotton  planters,  more 
than  half  of  whose  product  was  then  being  exported  to 
England,  were  furthered  by  a  drawback  of  half  the  duty 
on  cotton  bagging  when  used  for  wrapping  bales  sent  to 
the  foreign  market. 

The  repeal  of  British  duties  on  foodstuffs,  anticipated 
in  Walker's  report,  was  already  being  debated  by  Parlia- 
ment. An  act  of  June  26,  1846,  reduced  the  tax  on  wheat, 
barley,  oats,  rye,  beans,  and  Indian  corn  to  a  mere  nominal 
rate.  The  year  following  the  duties  were  suspended,  and 
they  were  soon  abrogated  altogether.  The  free  list  was 
rapidly  extended,  until  by  1849  ^^^  our  agricultural  prod- 
ucts, except  tobacco,  were  admitted  to  England  free  of 
duty,  even  when  carried  in  American  bottoms.  Our  ex- 
ports of  wheat  rose  immediately  from  840,000  bushels  in 
1845  to  17,273,000  in  1847;    our  exports  of  wheat  flour 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     257 

from   1,195,000   barrels  in   1845    to  4,383,000   in   1847.   U.S.  Census, 
Prices  rose  with  the  famine  demand,  and  the  American  ^^^?' 
farmer  reaped  a  rich  harvest  from  the  necessities  of  the  Irish  ^^^  ^^^' 
peasant.     England's  population  had  outgrown  the  normal 
capacity  of  her  fields,  so  that  American  farmers  were  assured 
a  permanent  market.     The  total  value  of  the  cereals  ex- 
ported in  1849  amounted  to  $22,531,465,  and  this  phenom- 
enal showing  was  maintained  in  later  years.     The  balance 
of  trade  turned  in  our  favor,  since  Great  Britain  was  obliged 
to  pay  for  these  extraordinary  receipts  in  gold  and  silver. 


TONNAGE 

OF 
VESSELS 
2.500,000 

2.250.000 

5,000.000 

1J50,000 

1.500.000 

1,250,000 

1.000,000 

760,000 

800.000 

260,000 1 

i 


EXPOR 


S  AND  IMPORTS 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

AND  TONNAGE  OF 

UNITED  STATES  VESSELS 

REGISTERED  FOR  FOREIGN  TRADE 

1789-1860 

.Exports 
.Imports 


h^ 


VALUE  OF 

IMPORTS  AND 

EXPORTS 

IN    DOLLARS 

500,000.000 


450,000.000 
400,000.000 
350.000.000 
300,000,000 
250.000,000 
100.000,000 
150,000,000 
100,000,000 
50,000,000 


In  his  report  of  December,  1846,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  commented  thus  on  the  effect  of  six  months' 
operation  of  the  Democratic  Tariff.     "  We  are  beginning  Cong.  Globe, 
to  realize  the  benefits  of  the  new  tariff.  ...     By  free  in-   ^^ 46-1 8 47, 
terchange  of  commodities  the  foreign  market  is  opened  ^"^^""^^ 
to  our  agricultural  products,  our  tonnage  and  commerce 
are  rapidly  augmenting,  our  exports  enlarged,   and  the 
price  enhanced ;  exchanges  are  in  our  favor,  and  specie  is 
flowing  within  our  Umits.     The  country  was  never  more 
prosperous  and  we  have  never  enjoyed  such  large  and 


12. 


s 


I 


Stanwood, 
II,  109-126. 


|i 


258      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

profitable  markets  for  all  our  products.  This  is  not  the 
result  of  an  inflated  currency,  but  is  an  actual  increase  of 
wealth  and  business.  While  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
navigation,  released  from  onerous  taxes  and  restrictions, 
are  thus  improved  and  invigorated,  manufactures  are  not 
depressed.  The  large  profits  of  manufacturers  may  be 
in  some  cases  somewhat  diminished,  but  that  branch  of 
industry,  now  reposing  more  on  its  own  skill  and  rt^sources, 
is  still  prosperous  and  progressive.  New  manufactories 
are  being  erected  throughout  the  country,  and  still  yield 
a  greater  profit  in  most  cases  than  capital  invested  in 
other  pursuits." 

The  Tariff  of  1857.  —  The  low  tariff  held  for  ten  years, 
and,  financially  at  least,  it  was  a  marked  success.     In 
1 854-1 856  the  revenues  from  customs  exceeded  the  normal 
expenditure  of  the  government.     Secretary  Walker  ad- 
vised a  general  reduction  of  import  duties  in  order  to 
"  reduce   the   surplus   revenue   and   the   constant  influx 
of  specie  into  the  vaults  of  the  treasury."    The  Tariff  Act 
passed  in  1857  cut  down  the  rates  on  Schedules  A  and 
B  to  30  per  cent,  while  duties  on  the  protected  products 
represented  in  Schedule  C  were  reduced  to  24  per  cent. 
The  25  per  cent  rate  of  Schedule  D  was  reduced  to  tg  per 
cent,  but  manufacturers  received  adequate  compensation  in 
the  reduction  of  the  tax  on  their  imported  raw  materials. 
For  example,  the  duties  on  pig  and  bar  iron  and  hemj)  were 
reduced  from  30  to  24  per  cent,  that  on  wool  from  30  to  8 
per  cent;    flax  and  dyestuffs  were  admitted  free.    This 
abatement  of  protection  to  their  special  interests  called 
out  strong  opposition  in  the  Middle  and  Western  states, 
but  the  Southern  vote  was  given  for  the  reduced  rates. 

The  Infant  Industries  come  of  Age.  —  Government 
support  once  withdrawn,  the  protected  industries  proved 
vigorous  enough  to  stand  alone.  The  growth  of  popula- 
tion meant  an  increased  demand  sufficient  to  absorb  both 
the  domestic  product  and  the  imported  goods.  Ocean 
freights  were  in  most  cases  a  sufficient  handicap  on  the 
foreign  manufacturer. 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs     259 

The  iron  industry  flourished,  for,  though  importations 
of  EngUsh  rolled  iron  increased,  American  ironmasters 
held  their  full  share  of  the  market.  Competition  forced 
them  to  abandon  the  old  method  of  hammering  out  bar  iron 
in  a  forge  fired  by  charcoal,  and  to  adopt  the  cheaper  fuel, 
coal,  and  the  less  expensive  process  of  puddUng  and  rolling. 
The  juxtaposition  of  iron  and  bituminous  coal  in  the 
western  Alleghanies,  coupled  with  improved  transporta- 
tion facilities,  gave  the  Pennsylvania  iron  manufacturers 
advantages  fully  equivalent  to  those  of  their  EngUsh  rivals. 
As  the  domestic  price  fell  (from  $85  per  ton  in  1844  to  $58 
in  i860),  freights  became  an  increasingly  effective  de- 
terrent on  importations. 

Cotton  manufactures  were  also  developing  during  this 
period  of  low  duties.  Inventions  multiplied  until  Ameri- 
can machinery  was  fully  equal  to  the  English,  and  American 
labor  proved  more  economical  because,  though  better  paid, 
it  was  more  efficient ;  moreover,  raw  cotton  was  cheaper  in 
the  United  States  market  by  the  difference  in  cost  of  trans- 
portation, amounting  to  two  cents  a  pound.  The  market 
for  cheap  cotton  goods  was  developing,  not  only  in  North 
and  South  America,  but  in  the  Orient.  Our  exports  of 
cotton  goods  rose  from  $3,000,000  per  year  in  1838  to 
$11,000,000  in  i860.  The  number  of  spindles  operated  in 
the  United  States  doubled,  and  our  consumption  of  raw 
cotton  trebled  in  the  same  twenty  years.  New  England  was 
still  the  center  of  this  important  industry,  his  advantages 
in  the  way  of  water  power  and  skilled  labor  enabling 
the  Yankee  entrepreneur  to  produce  the  goods  at  low  cost 

Growth  of  Cotton  Manufacture  in  the  United  States 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
128-135. 

Swank,  Ch. 
XLI,  XLII. 

Bishop,  II, 
489-492. 

Census, 
i860, 
Manufac- 
tures, 
clxv-clxvi. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
135-142. 

Bishop,  II, 
494-496. 


Census, 
i860,  Manu- 
factures, 
x-xx. 


Yeak 

nctmber  of 
Spindles 

Bales  of  Cotton 
Consumed 

Employrfs 

1840        .... 
i860        .... 

2,284,631 
5,235,727 

295,000 
978,000 

72,119 
122,028 

'! 


I 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
143-152. 

Bishop,  II, 
496-497. 

Census, 
i860,  Manu- 
factures, 
xxv-xxxiv, 
li-lix. 

Bishop,  n, 
474-482. 


Bym, 
Progress  of 
Invention, 
Ch.  XIX. 


U.  S.  Census, 
i860, 
Manufac- 
tures, lix- 
Ixvi. 

U.  S.  Census, 
IQOO,  IX, 
259-310- 


U.S.  Census, 
i860.  Manu- 
factures, 
Ixvii-lxxii. 


260      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  woolen  manufacturers  labored  under  a  special  dis- 
advantage in  that  domestic  wool  was  inadequate  both  in 
quantity  and  quality.  The  retention  of  the  duty  on  the 
finer  grades  of  raw  wool  rendered  the  imported  fiber  so 
expensive  that  the  manufacturers  were  confined  to  the  mak- 
ing of  cheap  satinets,  broadcloths,  flannels,  and  blankets. 
The  only  notable  gains  of  this  period  were  due  to  the  in- 
vention of  power  looms  for  the  weaving  of  knit  go{>ds  and 
the  manufacture  of  ingrain  and  Brussels  carpets. 

Notable  Inventions.  —  Under  the  stimulus  of  the  patent 
law,  improved  machinery  was  being  introduced  into  every 
branch  of  manufacture.  From  1840  to  1850  patents  were 
granted  at  the  rate  of  646  per  year.  Most  notable  among 
the  inventions  afifecting  manufactures  was  the  sewing- 
machine.  EUas  Howe  brought  out  his  invention  in  1846. 
The  machine  proved  an  immediate  success,  and  Howe 
made  a  fortune  from  its  sale.  Improved  patents  were 
soon  put  upon  the  market,  but  the  rival  manufacturers 
entered  into  an  agreement  (1856)  for  the  merging  of  their 
rights  and  the  division  of  royalties.  I.  M.  Singer  intro- 
duced the  method  of  sale  by  installments,  and  by  this 
means  the  labor-saving  device  was  brought  within  reach 
of  the  poor.  The  output  in  1853  was  2266  machines  ;  six 
years  later  it  was  42,539.  The  advantages  accruing  to 
the  large  workshop  by  the  division  of  labor  and  super- 
intendence of  details,  speedily  converted  the  manufacture 
of  ready-made  clothing  from  a  domestic  to  a  factory  in- 
dustry. The  capital  invested  in  this  business  doubled  be- 
tween 1850  and  i860,  and  the  value  of  the  output  increased 
from  $48,000,000  to  $80,000,000,  but  the  number  of  em- 
ployees increased  only  19  per  cent  in  the  same  interval. 
The  saving  in  wages  reduced  the  cost  of  the  factory 
product  to  one  fourth  that  of  the  hand-stitched  garment. 
The  duty  on  ready-made  clothing  was  omitted  in  the  tariff 
of  1857. 

The  most  important  apphcation  of  the  sewing-machine 
was  made  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes.  The  invention  of  a 
needle  that  could  carry  a  wax  thread  through  leather,  con- 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     261 

verted  the  making  of  boots  and  shoes  into  a  factory  in- 
dustry in  the  last  decade  before  the  Civil  War.  In  1861 
McKay  invented  a  machine  for  sewing  soles  to  uppers 
more  cheaply  than  pegs  could  be  driven,  even  by  machinery. 
This  automatic  needle  enabled  a  skilled  workman  to  sew  the 
soles  on  to  nine  hundred  pairs  of  shoes  in  a  ten-hour  day. 
The  labor  cost  of  the  machine-made  shoe  was  reduced  to 
one  eleventh  of  that  of  the  hand-sewn  article.  So  pre- 
eminent were  our  advantages  in  this  branch  of  manufac- 
ture, that  the  import  duty  might  now  have  been  aboUshed 
but  for  the  offsetting  duty  on  leather. 

Agricultural  Machinery.  —  American  agriculture  was 
carried  on  in  wasteful,  unscientific  fashion  until  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Farm  implements  were  of 
the  rudest.  Spades,  mattocks,  pitchforks,  and  plows 
were  still  of  home  manufacture,  the  iron  parts  being 
clumsily  wrought  over  a  blacksmith's  forge.  In  1807 
Peacock  succeeded  in  popularizing  his  iron  plowshare  in 
New  Jersey,  and  in  the  next  decade  Smith's  plow  came  into 
general  use  in  eastern  Pennsylvania.  The  cast-iron  mold- 
board  was  not  only  cheaper  than  the  plated  wooden  share, 
but  stronger  and  more  effective,  because  it  offered  less 
resistance  to  the  soil.  More  than  twelve  thousand  patents 
have  since  been  issued  for  improvements  in  the  structure 
of  the  plow. 

Patents  for  an  automatic  mower  were  taken  out  by  Obed 
Hussey,  of  Baltimore,  December  31,  1833,  and  by  Cyrus 
H.  McCormick  of  Rockbridge,  Virginia,  in  the  following 
June.  These  reapers  enabled  one  man  with  a  team  of 
horses  to  cut  as  much  grain  as  twenty  men  swinging  a 
cradle.  Hands  were  scarce  in  the  new  West,  and  farmers 
eagerly  availed  themselves  of  this  labor-saving  device. 
There  were  three  machines  manufactured  in  1840,  three 
thousand  in  1850,  and  twenty  thousand  in  i860.  Since 
the  principal  market  was  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley, 
the  manufacture  gravitated  to  this  section.  McCormick's 
first  reaper  was  made  at  a  blacksmith's  shop  in  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley.  In  1846  the  works  were  transferred  to 
Cmcmnati,  in  1849  to  Chicago. 


U.  S.  Census, 
1900,  IX, 
730-738, 
754-758. 


Bailey, 
Cyclopedia 
of  Agricul- 
ture, IV, 
Ch.  II. 

U.  S.  Census, 
i860.  Agri- 
culture, 
xi— xxiv. 

U.  S.  Census, 

1900, 

X,  352-353. 

358-364. 

Holmes, 
Progress  of 
Agr.  in  U.S. 

Bym, 
Ch.  XVI. 

Thwaite's 
McCormick. 

Casson, 
Romance  of 
the  Reaper. 

Quaintance, 
Influence  of 
Farm  Ma- 
chinery. 

Roberts, 
Fertility  of 
the  Land, 

Ch.  n. 


262      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Labor-saving  machinery  and  cheapened  transportation 
greatly  increased  the  output  of  the  Western  farms.  Wheat 
and  corn,  wool  and  cotton,  were  dispatched  to  the  manu- 
facturing centers  of  the  East  or  shipped  abroad  in  un- 
precedented volume.  The  farmer's  only  thought  was  to 
produce  as  much  as  his  land  would  yield,  without  regard 
to  the  limitations  of  his  market.  The  effect  was  a  speedy 
glut  of  the  market,  which  brought  about  a  ruinous  drop 
in  prices. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  —  The  use  of  fertilizers  with 
which  to  nourish  exhausted  soils  came  into  use  in  this 
period.  One  thousand  tons  of  guano  were  brought  to  the 
Census, /poo,  United  States  in  1848.  The  importation  steadily  in- 
creased in  the  decade  following,  and  amounted  to  sixty 
thousand  tons  in  1856.  But  the  Peruvian,  as  well  as  the 
Mexican,  supply  was  soon  exhausted,  and  the  manufac- 
ture of  mechanical  fertilizers  was  undertaken  by  an  enter- 
prising physician  of  Baltimore.  The  essential  plant  food 
was  derived  from  bones,  shells,  and  phosphate  rock,  pot- 
ash, and  ammoniates.  The  refuse  of  fish  canneries  and 
slaughterhouses  also  was  converted  into  nutriment  for 
growing  crops. 


X,  560-569. 


Development  of  Commerce 

Shipbuilding.  —  Our  free-trade  epoch  witnessed  a  doub- 
Hng  and  trebling  in  the  volume  of  foreign  trade,  and  a 
corresponding  increase  in  our  merchant  marine.  After  a 
long  period  of  depression,  the  shipbuilding  industry  re- 
covered the  prestige  of  former  days,  and  the  tonnage 
figures  of  18 10  were  finally  surpassed  in  1846.  During 
Marvin,         the  next  fifteen  years  there  was  a  steady  increase  in  our 

C^\\   YT    YTT 

'  ocean  tonnage,  which  amounted  to  2,500,000  tons  in  1861. 

164-170  These  were  prosperous  times  for  American  shipyards. 
We  had  oak  and  hard  pine  in  plenty  and  the  best  ship- 
wrights in  the  world.  Skilled  artisans  from  all  countries 
flocked  to  Bath,  Salem,  East  Boston,  New  London, 
New   York,   Philadelphia,   Wilmington,  and   Baltimore, 


^  Mk.  -HI 


Evolution  of  the  Reaper 


li 


l| 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs     263 

to  avaU  themselves  of  the  high  wages  paid  by  the  leading 
builders.  The  construction  of  a  schooner  of  five  hundred 
tons  cost  $37,500  in  the  United  States  and  $42,000  in 
England.  With  this  advantage  we  were  able  to  build  all 
our  own  ships  and  to  sell  many  abroad.  The  British 
embargo  on  American-built  ships  was  removed  in  1849,  and 
this  important  market  was  opened  to  us.  In  spite  of  the 
discriminations  against  American-built  vessels  imposed  in 
Lloyd's  insurance  rates,  many  ships  were  "  sold  foreign  " 
at  a  fair  profit. 

All  along  the  New  England  coast,  wherever  cove  or 
river  mouth  gave  convenient  launching  room,  smaller 
vessels  were  building,  —  schooners  for  local  trade  and 
smacks  for  the  fishing  fleet.  Many  a  Yankee  skipper 
built  his  own  vessel,  manned  it  with  friends  and  neighbors, 
and  made  independent  commercial  ventures  up  and  down 
the  coast.  Captain  and  crew  were  bred  to  the  sea  and 
excelled  in  skill  and  daring,  so  that  American  sailors  were 
noted  in  all  ports  for  self-reliance  and  resourcefulness. 
Good  wages  and  the  standard  food  and  quarters  pre- 
scribed by  Federal  law  attracted  many  foreign  seamen  to 
our  service. 

The  great  majority  of  our  ships  were  fast  saiUng  vessels, 
the  famous  Yankee  cUppers,  the  swiftest  and  stanchest 
craft  afloat.  Half  a  dozen  packet  Unes  made  regular 
monthly  trips  from  New  York,  Boston,  or  Philadelphia  to 
Liverpool  and  Havre.  The  vessels  were  built  with  a  view 
to  speed,  and  such  was  the  seamanship  of  oflScers  and  men 
that  the  eastward  trip  was  usually  made  in  from  eighteen 
to  twenty  days,  the  westward  in  from  twenty-one  to  twenty- 
six  days.  The  repeal  of  the  British  Navigation  Act  1849 
admitted  American  vessels  to  traffic  between  Great  Britain 
and  her  colonies,  and  our  merchants  for  the  first  time 
secured  their  full  share  of  the  carrying  trade  between  Great 
Britain  and  European  lands.  The  reciprocity  treaty  with 
England  became  at  last  of  equal  advantage  to  both  parties. 

The  rush  to  CaKfornia  brought  fast  saiHng  vessels  into 
requisition  for  the  voyage  round  the  Horn,  and  vessels  of  the 


m 


I 


Johnson, 
Ocean  and 
Inland 
Water 

Transporta- 
tion, Ch. 
III. 


Lardner, 
The  Atlantic 
Steam 
Question. 


264      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

largest  and  best  models  were  built  for  the  Pacific  trade 
Commerce  between  Atlantic  ports  and  San  Diego  and  San 
Francisco,  by  this  route  or  by  the  Isthmus  of  Panama 
was  mterpreted  to  be  coastwise  trade  and  was  therefore 
restncted  to  our  own  vessels.     Extravagant  prices  were 
charged   for   transportation   of    passengers   and   freight 
and  shipmasters  reaped   golden   profits.     Cramp   on   the 
Delaware,  Webb  on  East  River,  and  McKay  on  the  Mystic 
vied  with  one  another  in  producing  mammoth  vessels  for 
this  trade.    The  California  boom  was  hardly  spent  when 
quite  as  unexpected  an  opening  was  furnished  by  the 
Crimean  War.     The  combined  British  and  French  fleets 
were  unequal  to  the  forwarding  of  troops  and  supplies, 
and  American  vessels  were  requisitioned  for  the  transport 
service. 

Subsidy  Policy.  —  Our  very  preeminence  in  the  building 
and  navigating  of  saiHng  vessels  proved  our  ultimate  un- 
doing.   The  attention  of  the  shipping  interest  was  .so 
concentrated  on  our  fast  clippers,  that  the  greater  possi- 
bihties  of  steam  were  ignored.     The  Savannah,  the  first 
steamer  to  cross  the  Atlantic  (1819),  had  been  built  on  this 
side  the  water,  but  that  was  regarded  a  mere  deed  of  brav- 
ado, and  the  venture  was  not  followed  up.     In  England 
on  the  contrary,  the  scarcity  of  timber  forced  the  adapta- 
tion of  the  steamboat  to  ocean  commerce.     Both  coal  and 
iron  were  then  cheaper  in  England  than  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  EngHsh  government  stood  ready  to  sub- 
sidize promising  ventures  in  this  new  field.     The  Cunard 
Company  (1839)  established  a  line  of  transatlantic  steamers 
and  was  accorded  $425,000,  and  later  $850,000,  per  year 
for  carrying  the  mails  between  Liverpool,  Halifax,  and 
Boston.     The  subsidy  far  exceeded  the  cost  of  the  mail 
service,  and  was,  in  fact,  paid  as  a  bonus  on  a  hazardous 
investment.    In  1840  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Line 
to  India  and  China,  and  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation 
Company  running  steamers  along  the  west  coast  of  South 
Amenca,  were  subsidized  in  Uke  manner.    These  English 
lines  offered  swifter  and  more  regular  service  than  saiUng 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue  Tariffs      265 

vessels  could  ever  attain,  and,  being  guaranteed  against 
losses  by  government  subsidy,  bade  fair  to  drive  American 
cUppers  out  of  the  transatlantic,  Asiatic,  and  South  Ameri- 
can trade. 

In  1845  our  government  came  tardily  to  the  aid  of  steam 
navigation.  The  Ocean  Steamship  Line  from  New  York 
to  Havre  and  Bremen  was  subsidized  at  the  rate  of  $200,000 
per  year.  The  CoUins  Line  from  New  York  to  Liverpool 
was  offered  $385,000,  but  the  stipend  was  raised  to  $858,000 
because  the  vessels  built  exceeded  the  contract  stipulations. 
The  Collins  steamers,  the  largest,  swiftest,  and  most  com- 
fortable ships  of  their  day,  competed  successfully  with  the 
Cunard  Line  for  passengers  and  freight.  The  reduction  of 
freight  rates  from  £7  \os.  to  £4  per  ton  seemed  an  im- 
mediate justification  of  the  subsidy  poUcy,  and  Congress 
bestowed  further  favors.  The  Pacific  Mail,  subsidized  to 
the  amount  of  $250,000  per  year,  sent  the  first  steamer 
round  the  Horn  in  October,  1848,  and  came  in  for  a  full 
share  of  the  profits  of  the  CaUfomia  trade.  The  Law  Line 
to  Colon,  and  the  Aspinwall  from  Panama  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, were  also  subsidized. 

The  extraordinary  prosperity  of  our  shipping  interest 
was  viewed  with  concern  by  the  Southern  and  Western 
states.  All  the  subsidized  steamers,  with  the  exception 
of  a  single  line  from  Charleston  to  Havana,  sailed  from 
Northern  ports,  and  the  ships  were  built  in  the  North  At- 
lantic states.  It  was  thought  unjust  that  the  general 
government  should  expend  more  than  one  and  a  half 
million  dollars  a  year  in  support  of  an  industry  whose 
profits  were  accruing  to  a  single  section  of  the  country. 
The  Southern  planters  protested  that  their  cotton  could 
be  as  cheaply  and  safely  carried  in  British  vessels.  Sub- 
sidies had  been  advocated  by  Butler  King  of  Georgia  in  the 
belief  that  Southern  shipping  would  revive  under  such 
auspices,  but  when  these  hopes  proved  fallacious,  Southern 
statesmen  vigorously  opposed  the  steamship  bonus.  In 
1856  the  subsidy  to  the  CoUins  Line  was  reduced  from 
*"  ^^,000  to  $385,000.    The  sudden  reduction  in  revenue. 


Cong.  Globe 

1852, 

1146-1149, 

1162-1167, 

1 199-1 205, 

1227-1231, 

I 241-1246, 

1 260-1 267, 

1 269-1 270, 

1288-1291, 

1302-1311, 

1325-1327, 

1717-1725. 

Appendix, 

604-61S, 

701-704, 

779-787, 
802-806, 
813-816, 
820-826. 


Cong.  Globe 

1847-1848, 
Appendix, 
936-938, 
1854-1855, 
Pt.  I, 
752-760, 
774-782, 
Pt.  II.  1156. 


266      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


i 


Sumner, 
Hist,  of  Am. 
Currency, 
169-187. 


coming  immediately  after  the  loss  of  two  great  steamers, 
wrecked  the  enterprise,  for  the  company  had  spent  ail  its 
mcome  on  improvements  and  held  no  reserve  funds. 
The  surviving  vessels  were  sold  for  debt  and  speedily 
transferred  to  the  English  flag.  Undeterred  by  this 
melancholy  example,  Congress  proceeded  in  1858  to  Umit 
all  subsidies  to  the  amount  of  sea  and  land  postage  on  the 
mails  actually  carried. 

Some  compensation  for  the  decay  of  foreign  commerce 
was  found  in  the  coastwise  trade,  which  offered  abundant 
scope  for  the  talents  of  an  enterprising  captain.  The 
voyage  from  Calais,  Mame,  to  Point  Isabel,  Texas,  was 
twenty-sLx  hundred  miles,  as  long  as  that  from  Boston  to 
Liverpool,  but  more  profitable  because  of  the  many  inter- 
mediate ports.  The  hazards  of  the  passage  round  Cape 
Hatteras  were  reduced  by  the  building  of  the  Chesapeake 
and  Albemarle  Canal  (1855-1860).  The  voyage  from 
Boston  to  Puget  Sound  was  fifteen  thousand  miles,  but 
along  this  route,  too,  stops  were  made  at  Rio  Janeiro, 
Buenos  Aires,  Valparaiso,  Callao,  San  Diego,  San  Pedro^ 
San  Francisco,  and  Portland,  with  a  profitable  interchange 
of  cargo. 

The  Panic  of  1857 

Our  third  financial  panic,  like  the  first  and  the  second, 
was  caused  by  undue  speculation.  The  extraordinary 
success  of  many  business  ventures  tempted  men  to  invest 
too  heavily.  The  purchase  and  improvement  of  lands 
in  the  new  West,  the  opening  up  of  mineral  resources,  — 
notably  coal  and  iron  in  Pennsylvania,  —  the  building  of 
ships,  the  construction  of  railroads,  all  required  large  in- 
vestments of  capital  that  could  bring  no  immediate  re- 
turn commensurate  with  expenditure.  The  $1,350,000,000 
buried  in  railways  between  1830  and  i860  represented 
an  enormous  drain  on  the  resources  of  the  country.  The 
sinking  of  one  tenth  as  much  capital  in  canals  had  wrecked 
these  enterprises  in  1837.     As  then  many  canal  ventures 


Territorial  Expansion  and  Revenue   Tariffs      267 

were  abandoned,  so  now  several  Western  railroad  enter- 
prises failed.  The  New  York  and  Erie,  the  Illinois  Central, 
the  Michigan  Central,  etc.,  went  into  bankruptcy.  Doubt- 
less the  reduction  of  import  duties  in  March,  1857,  preju- 
diced such  manufacturing  interests  as  reaped  no  adequate 
compensation  from  free  raw  materials.  Some  mines  and 
factories  were  closed,  and  many  curtailed  production; 
but  the  general  depression  was  slight  as  compared  with 
that  of  twenty  years  previous.  Comparatively  few 
operatives  were  thrown  out  of  employment,  and  the  de- 
cline m  wages  was  made  good  by  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
Hying.  The  prosperity  of  farmers  and  planters  was  un- 
disturbed, their  foreign  market  for  corn,  wheat,  and  cotton 
being  furthered  by  free  trade. 

The  crisis  of  1857  was  primarily  a  financial  panic.  Bank 
management  had  been  conservative  and  wise  in  the  ten 
years,  1843-1853,  notably  in  the  Eastern  cities.  Few  new 
banks  were  established,  loans  were  extended  with  caution, 
and  the  issue  of  notes  was  kept  within  reasonable  limits.' 
The  $100,000,000  worth  of  gold  sent  to  the  mints  from  the 
California  mines  furnished  a  suflicient  specie  basis  for  bank 
currency.  Credit  agencies  kept  pace  with  the  normal 
business  development  of  the  country.  But  in  1853  a 
speculative  mania  took  possession  of  the  financial  world. 
In  the  next  four  years  the  number  of  banking  institu- 
tions was  doubled,  credit  money  was  issued  to  the  sum  of 
$214,800,000,  more  than  double  the  amount  outstanding 
in  1847,  and  loans  ran  up  to  $684,500,000.  On  August 
22,  1857,  the  obligations  of  the  New  York  banks  were 
$1 2,000,000  in  excess  of  their  available  capital.  The  failure 
of  the  Ohio  Life  Insurance  and  Trust  Company,  on  August 
24,  dragged  down  some  leading  New  York  firms.  A  run  on 
the  banks  followed,  and  all  but  the  most  conservative 
were  obliged  to  suspend,  while  thousands  of  the  more 
speculative  business  ventures  went  to  the  wall.  There 
were  4932  failures  in  1857,  and  4225  in  1858.  The  losses 
reached  an  unprecedented  figure,  $387,500,000,  but  they 
Jell  largely  on  bankers  and  investors.     The  rank  and  file 


Wright, 
Industrial 
Depressions, 
56-60. 

Stan  wood, 
II,  109-116. 

Wages  and 

Prices, 

303-308. 


Dewey, 

259-264. 

Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
636-640. 


Burton, 
Crises  and 
Depressions, 
282-286,  344. 


268      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  producers  were  little  affected  by  the  disaster,  and 
no  prolonged  depression  of  business  followed.  Industrial 
development  would  have  received  no  serious  check  but 
for  the  overwhelming  disaster  of  a  great  civil  war. 


ll 


•-■>>'*w§^i 


;  r;> "'ig)-—  ' •  'S'^~".v. ■^fi*:""'"*' ' 


An  Old  Time  Clipper 


y 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  CIVIL  WAR:  ECONOMIC   CAUSES  AND 

RESULTS 


Slavery  versus  Free  Labor 

Trend  of  Southern  Opinion.  —  In  the  first  decade  of 
our  national  history,  antislaver^sentiment  was  stronger  in 
Virginia  than  in  New  England.  Washington  repeatedly 
expressed  his  conviction  that  slavery  should  be  aboUshed, 
and  directed  his  heirs  to  set  free  his  slaves  and  provide 
for  their  education  and  maintenance  out  of  the  estate. 
Jefferson  regarded  slavery  as  degrading  to  master  and  man 
alike,  and  introduced  in  the  convention  that  formulated 
a  state  government  for  Virginia  a  bill  providing  for  gradual 
emancipation.  Children  of  slaves  born  after  the  passage 
of  the  act  were  to  be  educated  at  the  public  expense  "  to 
tillage,  arts,  or  sciences,  according  to  their  geniusses,  till 
the  females  should  be  eighteen,  and  the  males  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  when  they  should  be  colonized  to  such  place 
as  the  circumstances  of  the  time  should  render  most  proper, 
sending  them  out  with  arms,  implements  of  household 
and  of  the  handicraft  arts,  seeds,  pairs  of  the  useful  domestic 
-animals,  etc.,  to  declare  them  a  free  and  independent  people, 
and  extend  to  them  our  alliance  and  protection,  till  they 
have  acquired  strength ;  and  to  send  vessels  at  the  same 
tinae  to  other  parts  of  the  world  for  an  equal  number  of 
white  inhabitants;  to  induce  whom  to  migrate  hither, 
proper  encouragements  were  to  be  proposed."  The 
measure  failed  because  of  the  opposition  of  the  tobacco^ 
planters,  but  Jefferson  hoped  for  ultimate  success.  A  bill 
for  the  emancipation  of  slaves  was  brought  before  the 

269 


Ingle, 

ch.  vin. 

Livennore, 
Opinions 
of  the 
Founders, 
20-24,  36-44. 

Writings  of 
Washington, 
X,  220;  XI, 
25.  30;  XIV, 
272,  281. 

Jefferson's 
Writings, 

III,  192, 
243-250, 
266—268 ; 

IV,  82-84, 
184-185. 


1 


Collins, 

ch.  vn. 


Writings  of 
James 
Madison, 
IV,  303. 


Thorn, 
Negroes  of 
Sandy 
Spring. 

Washington, 
Booker,  Two 
Generations 
under 
Freedom. 


U.  S.  Census, 
i860. 

Population, 
XV,  XVI. 
Olmstead, 
Seaboard 
Slave  States, 
125-133, 
633-637. 
Washington, 
Story  of  the 
Negro,  I, 
Ch.  X. 

De  Bow,  II, 
269-292. 


270      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Virginia  legislature  in  1831,  and  a  similar  proposition  was 
debated  in  the  Kentucky  assembly  as  late  as  1849.  Vir- 
ginia prohibited  the  importation  of  slaves  from  abroad 
(1778),  and  Maryland  followed  her  example  in  1783.  The 
twenty  years'  extension  of  the  slave  trade  conceded  by 
the  Federal  Constitution  was  condemned  by  projninent 
Southerners.  James  Madison  declared :  "  Twenty  years 
Avill  produce  all  the  mischief  that  can  be  apprehended  from 
the  Uberty  to  import  slaves.  So  long  a  term  will  be  more 
dishonorable  to  the  national  character  than  to  say  nothing 
about  it  in  the  Constitution." 

A  considerable  number  of  slaves  was  being  emancipated 
by  the  voluntary  act  of  their  owners.  John  Randolph 
had  signaUzed  his  detestation  of  slavery  by  freeing  his 
negroes  and  bequeathing  $8000  for  settUng  them  on  free 
soil,  and  this  "  shocking  example  "  was  followed  by  other 
conscientious  planters.  The  Friends  of  Sandy  Spring, 
Maryland,  freed  their  slaves  early  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. One  wealthy  Virginian  emancipated  his  forty-one 
slaves  by  will  and  provided  for  their  transportation  to 
Cass  County,  Michigan,  and  for  the  purchase  of  land  for 
their  use.  The  number  of  manumissions  steadily  increased 
until  they  amounted  to  from  two  to  three  thousand  a  year, 
and  it  is  probable  that  in  the  last  decade  before  the  Civil 
War  some  twenty  thousand  negroes  were  so  set  free.  The 
number  of  slaves  escaping  to  the  North  was  by  comparison 
inconsiderable;  the  total  reported  for  1850  was  loii,  and 
for  i860,  803.  In  i860  the  free  colored  population  of  the 
United  States  reached  a  total  of  500,000,  of  whom  250,000 
were  found  in  the  Southern  states  and  11,000  at  the  na- 
tional capital.  The  presence  of  this  large  body  of  freed- 
men,  neither  citizens  nor  slaves,  and  having,  therefore, 
no  political  status,  caused  considerable  uneasiness  to  the 
ruling  class,  and  laws  regulating  their  conduct  passed  by 
several  states  were  hardly  less  severe  than  the  slave  code 
itself. 

To  Southern  statesmen  the  insuperable  obstacle  to  gen- 
eral  emancipation   was   the   difficulty   of  providing   for 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     271 

African  freedmen  in  the  American  social  and  industrial 
order.     Henry  Clay  hated  slavery  and  ardently  hoped  to 
"  eradicate  this  deepest  stain  upon  the  character  of  our 
country";    nevertheless,    he    assured    the    Colonization 
Society  of  Kentucky :    "  If  the  question  were  submitted 
whether  there  should  be  either  immediate  or  gradual  eman- 
cipation of  all  the  slaves  in  the  United  States  without  their 
removal  or  colonization,  painful  as  it  is  to  express  the  opin- 
ion, I  have  no  doubt  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  emancipate 
them.     For  I  believe  that  the  aggregate  of  all  the  evUs 
which  would  be  engendered  upon  society  upon  the  sup- 
position of  such  general  emancipation  and  of  the  Uberated 
slaves    remaining    promiscuously    among   us,    would   be 
greater  than  all  the  evils  of  slavery,  great  as  they  un- 
questionably   are."     Clay    favored    the    colonization    of 
emancipated  slaves  in  the  land  from  which  they  had  been 
originally  abducted,  and  urged  upon  Congress  the  duty 
of  furnishing  the  means  of  transportation  for  at  least  52,000 
each  year  — the  equivalent  of  the  annual  increase  in  the 
colored  population.     He  beUeved  that  if  this  opportunity 
to  dispose  of  the  freedmen  safely  were  given,  the  slave 
states  would  enact  laws  providing  for  gradual  emancipa- 
tion, and  thus  ultimately  rid  themselves  "  of  a  universally 
acknowledged  curse." 

The  American  Colonization  Society  was  organized  at 
Washington  in  181 5,  in  the  hope  of  founding  a  freedmen's 
colony  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  under  conditions  that 
should  secure  their  immediate  comfort  and  give  some 
assurance  of  eventual  self-support.  The  first  settlement 
at  Liberia  was  made  in  1822.  Seven  years  later,  according 
to  Clay,  there  were  fifteen  hundred  freedmen  in  residence'' 
and  they  were  successfully  cultivating  cotton,  rice,  and 
sugar,  and  were  maintaining  a  fully  constituted  govern- 
ment together  with  schools,  churches,  and  a  public  library. 
In  1849,  when  Liberia  became  an  independent  state  there 
were  but  eighteen  thousand  blacks  of  American  origin 
in  its^population.  The  deportations  had  amounted  to  far 
less  than  the  anticipated  fifty-two  thousand  a  year,  and 


De  Bow,  II, 

262-264, 

267-269. 


Speeches  of 
Henry  Clay, 
Dec.  17, 
1829. 


Speeches  of 
Henry  Clay, 
Jan.  20, 
1827. 


Martineau, 
1. 345-395. 


De  Bow, 
II,  234,  267, 
309-310, 
342. 


Brown, 
Lower  South 
in  Am.  Hist., 
50-83- 
De  Bow, 

II,  253 ; 

III,  131- 


Holmes, 
Ch.  VIII. 


De  Bow, 
11,  235. 


272      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

it  became  evident  that  the  solution  offered  by  the  American 
Colonization  Society  was  utterly  inadequate. 

The    Proslavery   Movement.  —  Meantime,  as  the  in- 
terests of  the  cotton  planters  gained  ascendancy  in  the 
councils  of  the  South,  a  vigorous  agitation  in  favor  of  the 
"pecuhar  institution"   took  the  place  of  emancipation 
projects.    The  attempt  of  Northern  statesmen  to  extend 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  to  the  new  state  of  Missouri 
failed  (1820),  and  only  that  part  of  Louisiana  Territory 
lying  north  of  36°  30'  was  reserved  to  free  labor.    Virginia 
and  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas  were  as  desirous  as  the 
Gulf  states  for  the  extension  of  the  slave  system,  for  they 
had  more  negroes  than  could  be  profitably  employed  on 
the  wornout  plantations,  and  the  planters  would  be  ruined 
without  an  enlarged  market  for  their  one  surplus  product. 
The  capital  invested  in  cotton  plantations  amounted,  in 
1840,  to  $327,000,000,  and  the  annual  product  represented 
a  gross  income  of  twenty,  and  a  net  income  of  eight  per 
cent.     Large-scale  production  seemed  to  necessitate  slave 
labor.     Governor  Hammond  of  St)uth  Carolina  declared 
that  the  cotton  industry  would  be  ruined  by  the  emanci- 
pation  of   the   negroes.     ''The   first   and   most   obvious 
effect  would  be  to  put  an  end  t(»  the  cultivation  of  our 
great  southern  staple.     And  this  would  be  equally  the  re- 
sult, if  we  suppose  the  emancipated  negroes  to  be  in  no 
way  distinguished  from  the  free  laborers  of  other  countries, 
and  that  their  labor  would  be  equally  effective.     In  that 
case,  they  would  soon  cease  to  be  laborers  for  hire,  but  would 
scatter  themselves  over  our  unbounded  territory,  to  become 
independent  landowners  themselves.     The  cultivation  of 
the  soil  on  an  extensive  scale  can  only  be  carried  on  where 
there  are  slaves,  or  in  countries  superabounding  with  free 
labor.     No  such  operations  are  carried  on  in  any  v>ortion 
of  our  own  country  where  there  are  not  slaves.     Such  are 
carried  on  in  England,  where  there  is  an  overflowing  pop- 
ulation and  intense  competition  for  employment.     And 
our  institutions  seem  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  our  re- 
spective situations.    There,  a  much  greater  number  of 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     273 

laborers  is  required  at  one  season  of  the  year  than  at  an- 
other, and  the  farmer  may  enlarge  or  diminish  the  quantity 
of  labor  he  employs,  as  circumstances  may  require.  Here, 
about  the  same  quantity  of  labor  is  required  at  every 
season,  and  the  planter  suffers  no  inconvenience  from  re- 
taining his  laborers  throughout  the  year.  Imagine  an  ex- 
tensive rice  or  cotton  plantation  cultivated  by  free  laborers, 
who  might  perhaps  strike  for  an  increase  in  wages  at  a 
season  when  the  neglect  of  a  few  days  would  insure  the 
destruction  of  the  whole  crop :  even  if  it  were  possible  to 
secure  laborers  at  all,  what  planter  would  venture  to  carry 
on  his  operations  under  such  circumstances  ?  I  need  hardly 
say,  that  these  staples  cannot  be  produced  to  any  extent 
where  the  proprietor  of  the  soil  cultivates  it  with  his  own 
hands.  He  can  do  little  more  than  produce  the  necessary 
food  for  himself  and  his  family." 

As  the  money  interest  in  slave  labor  grew  more  potent. 
Southern  leaders  undertook  to  justify  the  labor  system  of 
the  South,  and  to  prove  that  slavery  was  no  more  de- 
grading than  wage  labor.  "  What  is  the  essential  char- 
acter of  Slavery,  and  in  what  does  it  differ  from  the  servi- 
tude of  other  countries  ?  If  I  should  venture  on  a  definition, 
I  should  say  that  where  a  man  is  compelled  to  labor  at  the 
will  of  another,  and  to  give  him  much  the  greater  portion 
of  the  product  of  his  labor,  there  Slavery  exists ;  and  it  is 
immaterial  by  what  sort  of  compulsion  the  will  of  the 
laborer  is  subdued.  It  is  what  no  human  being  would 
do  without  some  sort  of  compulsion.  He  cannot  be  com- 
pelled to  labor  by  blows.  No,  but  what  difference  does 
it  make,  if  you  can  inflict  any  other  sort  of  torture  which 
will  be  equally  effectual  in  subduing  the  will?  if  you  can 
starve  him,  or  alarm  him  for  the  subsistence  of  himself 
or  his  family?  And  is  it  not  under  this  compulsion  that 
the  freeman  labors?  " 

Against  such  arguments,  one  should  in  all  fairness  set 
the  conclusions  of  a  careful  Northern  observer.  F.  L. 
Olmsted,  who  made  extended  horseback  journeys  through 
the  South  in  1853  and  1855,  became  convinced  that  the 


Bassett, 
Slavery  in 
North 
Carolina, 
391-425. 


De  Bow, 
II,  223. 


Olmsted, 
The  Cotton 
Kingdom, 
II,  184-212, 
236-251, 
252-271. 


274      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     275 


Olmsted, 

Seaboard 

Slave  States, 

90-91, 

98-99,  105, 

185-186, 

686-715. 


Steiner, 
Slavery  in 
Connecticut, 
407-452. 


Hart, 

Slavery  and 
Abolition. 


industrial  efficiency  of  free  labor  was  from  two  to  four  times 
that  of  slaves  who  lack  the  stimulus  of  acquisition.  **  This 
is  the  truth,  then  —  is  it  not?  The  slaves  are  generally 
sufficiently  well-fed  to  be  in  toleral)le  working  condition ; 
but  not  as  well  as  our  free  laborers  generally  are :  slavery, 
in  practice,  affords  no  safety  against  occasional  suffering 
for  want  of  food  among  laborers,  or  even  against  their 
starvation,  any  more  than  the  com])etitive  system ;  while 
it  withholds  all  encouragement  from  the  laborer  to  improve 
his  faculties  and  his  skill;  destroys  his  self-respect,  mis- 
directs and  debases  his  ambition,  and  withholds  all  the 
natural  motives  which  lead  men  to  endeavor  to  increase 
their  capacity  of  usefulness  to  their  country  and  the  world. 
To  all  this,  the  occasional  suffering  of  the  free  laborer  ia 
favorable,  on  the  whole.  The  occasional  suffering  of  the 
slave  has  no  such  advantage.  To  deceit,  indolence,  malev- 
olence, and  thievery,  it  may  lead,  as  may  the  suffering 
...  of  the  laborer,  but  to  industry,  cultivation  of  skill, 
perseverance,  economy,  and  virtuous  habits,  neither  the 
suffering,  nor  the  dread  of  it  as  a  possibility,  ever  can 
lead  the  slave,  as  it  generally  does  the  free  laborer,  unless 
it  is  by  inducing  him  to  run  away." 

Trend  of  Opinion  in  the  North.  —  The  emancipation 
movement  of  the  North,  in  its  later  stages  at  least,  gathered 
inspiration  from  the  democratic  theories  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  The  gospel  of  Uberty,  equality,  and  fraternity 
imbibed  in  revolutionary  France  led  Jefferson  to  prefix 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  the  assertion  that  "  all 
men  are  created  equal,"  the  potent  shibboleth  of  every 
humanitarian  movement  that  has  agitated  the  American 
people  since  his  day.  Earnest  of  his  faith  in  this  demo- 
cratic dogma  was  given  in  Jefferson's  plan  for  the  or^ 
ganization  of  the  Northwest  Territory  (submitted  to  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederation  in  March,  1784),  in  which 
manhood  suffrage,  the  sale  to  actual  settlers  of  the  public 
lands,  and  the  prohibition  of  slavery  were  guaranteed  in 
the  region  Virginia  was  about  to  cede  to  the  United  States, 
Jefferson's  accession  to  the  presidency  was  hailed  as  the 


triumph  of  the  people's  party.  The  removal  of  the 
original  limitations  on  the  suffrage  in  the  first  decades  of 
the  nineteenth  century  and  the  extension  of  the  ballot 
privilege  to  every  male  citizen  was  the  fruition  of  his 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty. 

The  Humanitarian  Movement  originated  with  the  visit 
to  the  United  States  in  1825  of  Robert  Owen,  the  English 
communist.  Owen  was  the  founder  of  a  model  factory 
town  at  New  Lanark,  Scotland,  and  the  chief  promoter  of 
the  factory  act  of  18 19,  the  first  successful  attempt  to  limit 
child  labor  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Great  Britain.  The  vested 
interests  of  the  Old  World  opposed  vexatious  obstacles 
to  the  carrying  out  of  his  social  and  economic  ideals,  and 
he  determined  to  make  his  experiment  in  communism  on 
virgin  soil.  A  tract  of  thirty  thousand  acres  along  the 
Wabash  River  was  purchased  of  the  Rappists,  a  German 
religious  community,  and  hither  Owen  invited  the  "in- 
dustrious and  well-disposed  of  all  nations  "  who  desired 
to  test  the  socializing  potency  of  human  brotherhood. 
Some  nine  hundred  people  gathered  at  New  Harmony, 
and  $200,000  out  of  Owen's  private  fortune  was  invested 
in  the  experiment ;  but  the  ideal  community  held  together 
only  three  years.  Owen  found  explanation  of  the  failure 
in  the  latent  selfishness  of  human  nature.  "  There  was  not 
disinterested  industry ;  there  was  not  mutual  confidence ; 
there  was  not  practical  experience ;  there  was  not  unison 
of  action,  because  there  was  not  unanimity  of  counsel. 
These  were  the  points  of  difference  and  dissension,  the  rock 
upon  which  the  social  bark  struck  and  was  wrecked." 
During  this  and  subsequent  visits  to  the  United  States, 
this  apostle  of  a  new  social  order  lectured  to  great  audiences 
in  Eastern  cities,  and  addressed  a  distinguished  assembly 
at  the  national  capital.  He  counted  such  men  as  John 
Quincy  Adams  among  his  friends,  and  solicited  public 
indorsement  of  his  panacea  for  the  woes  of  society.  Un- 
discouraged  by  the  faQure  at  New  Harmony,  his  disciples 
undertook  a  series  of  similar  experiments.  In  the  stirring 
years  from  1830  to  i860  eleven  Owenite  communities  were 


Robert  Dale 
Owen,  Auto- 
biography, 
Ch.  Ill, 
VIII,  IX. 


Sargant, 
Robt.  Owen, 
Ch.  XX- 
XXII. 


Noyes, 
Hist,  of  Am. 
Socialisms, 

Ch.  n-iv. 


I 


I 


Ely,  Labor 
Movements 
in  America, 
Ch.  III. 

McNeill, 
The  Labor 
Movement, 
Ch.  IV. 

Mitchell, 

Organized 

Labor, 

Ch.  vm. 


Commons 
and  Sumner, 
Labor  Move- 
ment, 1820- 
1860. 


Sotheran, 
Horace 
Greeley, 
106-107. 


276      Industrial  History  of  tfie  United  States 

planted,  flourished  for  brief  periods,  and  died.  Most  of 
the  settlers  came  from  New  England,  and,  with  the  sole 
exception  of  Nashoba,  an  experiment  in  emancipation, 
their  settlements  were  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 
Owen  failed  to  demonstrate  the  [)racticabiUty  of  com- 
munism, but  his  influence  for  social  betterment  was  great. 
Faith  in  human  brotherhood  and  in  the  possibilities  of 
social  and  economic  reform  spread  like  a  religious  revival 
throughout  the  North.  Many  of  the  men  prominent 
in  the  humanitarian  movements  of  the  next  thirty  years 
were  originally  converts  to  Robert  Owen's  gospel. 

The  Organization  of  Labor  began  with  the  introduction 
of  machinery  and  the  massing  of  operatives  in  factories 
and  workshops.  The  natural  effect  was  the  consciousness 
of  common  interests  and  the  determination  to  promote 
the  betterment  of  working  conditions  by  concerted  demand. 
The  first  trade  unions  appeared  in  the  industrial  centers 
of  the  North  Atlantic  states;  New  York  witnessed  its 
first  strike  in  1802,  Boston  in  1825,  the  first  trade  union 
council  was  convened  in  New  York  in  1833.  With  im- 
proved facilities  for  communication  and  assembly,  these 
local  unions  were  converted  into  federal  associations. 
The  printers  were  so  organized  in  1852,  the  hat  finishers 
in  1854,  the  iron  workers  and  machinists  in  1858  and  1859. 

Bodies  of  mechanics  affiliated  along  trade  union  lines 
will  further  their  own  immediate  interests  with  small  regard 
for  the  well-being  of  unskilled  laborers,  but  with  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage,  workingmen  began  to  organize  to 
secure,  by  means  of  the  ballot,  laws  that  should  benefit 
not  their  trade  fellows  merely,  but  the  whole  body  of  wage- 
earners.  The  Workingmen's  party  held  its  first  general 
convention  at  Syracuse  in  1830.  In  the  following  year  the 
New  England  Association  of  Farmers,  Mechanics,  and 
Other  Workingmen  proposed  "  the  organization  of  the 
whole  laboring  population  of  this  United  Republic  "  and 
the  revision  of'  "  our  social  and  political  system."  The 
founders  declared  their  "  fixed  determination  to  persevere 
till  our  wrongs  are  redressed,  and  to  imbue  the  minds  of 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     277 

our  offspring  with  a  spirit  of  abhorrence  for  the  usurpations 
of  aristocracy,  and"  of  resistance  to  their  oppressions,  so 
invincible,  that  they  shall  dedicate  their  fives  to  a  com- 
pletion of  the  work  which  their  ancestors  commenced  in 
their  struggle  for  national  and  their  sires  have  continued 
in  their  contest  for  personal  independence."  In  1830  the 
Workingmen's  party  of  New  York  polled  less  than  three 
thousand  votes  in  the  state  elections,  but  in  New  York 
City,  where  the  organization  had  a  strong  constituency, 
it  succeeded  in  electing  three  or  four  members  of  the 
legislature.  In  1832  the  party  declared  for  Andrew 
Jackson  and  threw  all  its  weight  in  favor  of  the  Demo- 
cratic president.  In  1835,  as  "Locofocos,"  they  captured 
the  New  York  Democratic  convention  and  promulgated 
a  party  platform  based  on  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Martin  Van  Buren  owed  his  election  in  good 
part  to  the  votes  of  the  workingmen  of  the  Eastern 
states,  and  he  rewarded  their  loyalty  (1840)  by  prescribing 
a  ten-hour  day  for  all  employees  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment. The  crisis  of  1837  and  the  subsequent  indus- 
trial depression  checked,  for  the  time  being,  the  growth 
of  the  labor  movement. 

In  1842  a  second  wave  of  socialist  enthusiasm  passed 
over  New  England  and  the  North.  Albert  Brisbane,  the 
apostle  of  Fourier's  gospel  of  association,  found  a  hearing 
among  the  most  thoughtful  men  of  the  day,  such  as  Horace 
Greeley,  the  editor  of  the  Nero)  York  Tribune,  and  William 
Henry  Channing,  who  edited  the  Spirit  of  the  Age,  Wendell 
Phillips,  Parke  Godwin,  etc.  A  number  of  Fourierist  pha- 
lansteries, thirty  or  forty  in  all,  were  set  on  foot,  and  to 
these  came  men  and  women  of  all  classes  and  conditions, 
hoping  to  find  in  community  of  property  and  labor  the 
secret  of  social  regeneration.  These  associations,  without 
exception,  made  their  experiments  in  the  Northern  tier  of 
states  —  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Iowa.  The  practical  results  of  the 
propaganda  were  no  more  encouraging  than  accrued  from 
the  Owenite  movement ;  but  its  influence  was  even  greater 


Rept.  Mass. 
Bureau 
Statistics  of 
Labor,  1870, 

QI-IOO. 


Commons, 

Horace 

Greeley. 

Sotheran, 
121-122, 

148-153, 
187. 

Noyes,  Hist, 
of  Am. 
Socialisms, 
Ch.  II. 


I 


ii 


Ingle, 
Ch.  IX. 

Brown, 
Lower  South 
in  Am.  Hist., 
83-112. 

The  Spirit  of 
the  Age,  I, 
203-204. 


Julian, 
PoUtical 
Recollec- 
tions, 

Ch.  II,  III, 
VI-VIII. 


278      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

2^nd  more  lasting.  Failing  to  establish  ideal  communities, 
the  reformers  undertook  to  remedy  the  abuses  of  the  society 
in  which  they  were  forced  to  live.  The  labor  movement 
gathered  fresh  energy.  George  Henry  Evans  and  Robert 
Dale  Owen  and  Frances  Wright,  all  three  of  EngUsh  birth 
and  Owenites,  addressed  great  audiences  in  the  Hall  of 
Science,  New  York,  and  convinced  their  hearers  of  the 
necessity  of  agitating  for  legislative  reforms.  Evans's 
paper,  Young  America^  set  forth  among  the  objects  to  be 
attained  "the  aboUtion  of  chattel  slavery"  and  the  free 
distribution  of  the  pubUc  lands. 

Slavery  and  the  Territories.  —  The  advocates  of  the 
rights  of  free  labor  strenuously  opposed  the  annexation  of 
Texas  and  the  resulting  war  with  Mexico."  The  Mexican 
cession  an  accomplished  fact,  they  strove  to  prevent  the 
admission  of  slavery  into  the  territories  both  north  and 
south  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  Une.  As  the  Demo- 
cratic party  fell  under  the  sway  of  Southern  political  lead- 
ers and  became  committed  to  the  policy  of  non-interference, 
the  labor  men  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the  Liberty 
party,  with  whose  fight  against  slavery  and  championship 
of  free  land  they  were  in  hearty  accord.  The  Free-Soil 
Democracy,  organized  at  Buffalo  in  1848,  combined  the 
more  moderate  wing  of  the  Liberty  party,  the  malcontent 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  with  the  elements  of  the  Working- 
men's  party.  The  platform  declared  the  prime  object  of 
this  revolt  to  be  to  maintain  "  the  rights  of  free  labor  against 
the  aggression  of  the  slave  power  and  to  secure  free  soil 
to  a  free  people."  The  Massachusetts  state  convention 
more  succinctly  expressed  the  point  of  view  of  the  wage- 
earners  :  "  Resolved,  That  labor  is  universally  dishonored 
and  its  interests  compromised  by  the  existence  of  slavery 
in  this  country,  and  that  the  first  step  for  its  elevation 
must  be  the  Umitation  and  extinction  of  slavery."  Van 
Buren,  the  nominee  of  the  Free-Soil  Democrats,  secured 
291,000  votes,  of  which  120,000  were  polled  in  New  York, 
38,000  in  Massachusetts,  and  35,000  in  Ohio ;  but  he  was 
defeated  by  Zachary  Taylor,  a  slave    owner  who  had 


Czvii  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     279 

won  popular  favor  by  brilliant  service  in  the  Mexican 
War.  In  its  platform  of  1852  the  Free-Soil  Democ- 
racy declared  expUcitly  that  slavery  must  be  excluded 
from  the  territories,  and  that  "  the  pubhc  land  of  the 
United  States  belongs  to  the  people  and  should  not  be 
sold  to  mdividuals  nor  granted  to  corporations,  but  should 
be  held  as  a  sacred  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  and 
should  be  granted  in  limited  quandties,  free  of  cost,  to 
landless  settlers."  The  156,000  votes  cast  for  Hale  'and  - 
JuUan  in  1852  fell  far  short  of  Van  Buren's  total,  but  rep- 
resented a  body  of  men  thoroughly  convinced  on  these 
two  points. 

The  utterances  of  the  RepubUcan  party  on  the  mooted  Julian, 
questions  of  slavery  and  the  public  lands  were  more  cautious    ^""^^  Repub- 
but  its  platform  served  as  a  rallying  ground  for  the  aboU-  uonai^^' 
tiomsts,  the  free-soilers,  and  the  men  who  cared  most  of  Convention, 
all  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union.     Fremont,  m  1856, 
secured  the  total  electoral  vote  of  New  England,  together 
with  that  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Iowa,  and  Wis- 
consm ;  and  Lincoln  in  i860  added  to  the  list  of  RepubHcan 
states  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  IlUnois,  Min- 
nesota, California,  and  Oregon. 

The  triumph  of  the  RepubHcan  party  meant  the  exclu- 
sion of  slavery  from  the  territories  and  the  ultimate  ruin 
of  the  "peculiar  institution."  The  proslavery  men  of 
the  Southern  states  forced  the  issue.  Six  weeks  after 
Lincoln's  election  South  Carolina  adopted  the  Ordinance 
of  Secession,  and  her  example  was  immediately  followed 
by  the  six  Gulf  states.  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky 
and  Missouri  were  the  only  slaveholding  states  that  did 
not  secede  from  the  Union. 

The  Cost  of  the  War 

Each  party  to  the  controversy  was  fighting  for  the 
mamtenance  of  a  political  principle  on  which  depended 
the  success  of  its  pecuHar  economic  and  social  order  The 
five  years'  conflict  was  waged  with  obstinate  endurance  and 


Goodloe, 
Resources 
and  Indus- 
trial Condi- 
tions of 
Southern 
States,  no. 


Kettell, 
Southern 
Wealth  and 
Northern 
Profits. 


Schwab, 
Confederate 
States  of 
America, 
Ch.  XI,  XII. 


Schwab, 
Ch.  Ill,  IV. 


280      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

reckless  expenditure  of  men  and  money  by  North  and 
South  alike,  and  the  issue  of  the  war  was  determined  by 
the  final  exhaustion  of  the  Confederacy.  The  resources 
of  the  cotton  kingdom  were  far  less  than  those  of  the 
Northern  states.  The  population  of  the  South  was  twelve 
million  souls,  of  whom  four  millions  were  slaves.  The 
North  opposed  a  population  of  nineteen  milUons,  all  free. 
The  taxable  property  of  the  South  was,  by  the  census  of 
i860,  estimated  at  five  billion  dollars,  of  which  two  billions 
represented  slaves  and  one  billion  and  a  half  real  estate 
devoted,  in  the  main,  to  the  growing  of  cotton.  The 
property  of  the  Northern  states  approximated  eleven  bil- 
lion dollars,  and  consisted,  in  good  part,  of  manufacturing, 
mining,  and  commercial  plants  whose  products  were  more 
readily  convertible  into  the  sinews  of  war.  When  Lee  sur- 
rendered at  Appomattox,  his  men  were  found  utterly 
destitute  of  supplies  and  weak  from  lack  of  food. 

Confederate  Finances.  —  It  was  expected  that  the  ex- 
penses of  the  Confederate  government  would  be  met  by 
customs  revenue,  but  the  effectual  blockade  maintained 
by  the  Federal  navy  stopped  foreign  trade,  and  the  returns 
were  disapp>ointing.  The  individual  states  were  then 
asked  to  levy  a  direct  property  tax  of  one  half  of  one  per 
cent,  and  to  turn  over  the  proceeds  to  the  general  treasury. 
No  more  than  $18,000,000  resulted  from  this  recjuisition, 
and  payments  were  usually  made,  not  in  cash,  but  in  state 
bonds.  It  speedily  became  evident  that  the  augmenting 
military  expenses  must  be  met  by  loans.  In  the  first 
year  of  the  war  the  Confederate  government  issued  bonds 
to  the  amount  of  $15,000,000  at  8  per  cent,  intc^rest  and 
principal  being  secured  by  an  export  tax  on  cotton  of  one 
eighth  of  a  cent  a  pound.  This  issue  was  taken  up  by 
Southern  bankers,  notably  those  of  New  Ork^ans  and 
Charleston,  and  brought  all  the  available  specie  in  the 
Confederacy  into  the  government  treasury.  The  money 
was  immediately  sent  abroad  for  military  supplies.  A  bond 
issue  of  $150,000,000,  ordered  in  the  following  year,  was 
made  payable  in  produce.     By  this  loan  the  government 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     281 


Cities  with  over  8U00  inhabUanU  in  tolid  cireUa, 

proportionatt  to  pupulatiun, 
97*  Ol"  80° 


W;«alAr   It  CU..N.r. 


Distribution  of  PopuLArioN,  1660 


Schwab, 
Ch.  V,  VII, 
VIII. 


282      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

came  into  possession  of  large  stores  of  cotton,  tobacco, 
wheat,  rice,  sugar,  and  molasses,  commodities  that  were 
a  drug  in  the  market,  together  with  $1,000,000  in  paper 
currency.  A  foreign  loan  of  $150,000,000  was  negotiated 
in  January,  1863,  the  bonds  being  made  redeemable  in 
cotton,  and  since  cotton  was  selling  at  famine  i)rices  in 
England  and  on  the  Continent,  these  securities  sold  with- 
out difficulty.  The  government  held  against  this  pledge 
350,000  bales  of  cotton,  and  the  supply  might  have  been 
doubled  readily,  but  all  efforts  to  ship  the  cotton  to  the 
foreign  creditors  failed. 

It  soon  became  evident  to  Confederate  financiers  that 
but  a  fraction  of  the  military  expenditure  could  be  met 
by  bond  issues  and  that  recourse  to  credit  money  was  in- 
evitable. Treasury  notes,  redeemable  within  the  year 
and  bearing  interest  at  3.65  per  cent,  had  been  issued  in 
March,  1861 ;  on  the  issue  of  April,  1862,  the  rate  was 
raised  to  7.3  per  cent.  Government  notes,  offering  no 
interest  and  not  to  be  redeemed  till  "  six  months  after  the 
ratification  of  a  treaty  of  peace,"  were  ordered  at  the  same 
time.  This  paper  currency  was  made  receivable  for  taxes, 
but  the  Confederate  Congress  refrained  from  declaring 
it  legal  tender  in  payment  of  private  debts.  The  issues 
of  1861  amounted  to  $30,000,000 ;  by  December,  1862, 
$450,000,000  had  been  forced  into  circulation ;  the  output 
of  1863  was  $150,000,000,  and  no  less  was  issued  in  each 
of  the  last  two  years  of  the  war.  The  sum  of  the  issues  of 
Confederate  currency  approximated  one  billion.  To  this 
appalling  total  were  added.  miUions  of  dollars  by  the  un- 
recorded issues  of  the  state  governments,  the  banks,  and 
private  business  firms.  Depreciation  followed  inevitably, 
—  in  part  because  the  currency  was  inflated,  in  part  be- 
cause men  lost  confidence  in  its  ultimate  redemption. 
In  January,  1863,  a  gold  dollar  was  worth  three  dollars  in 
Confederate  paper,  twelve  months  later  gold  exchanged  for 
twenty-one,  and  in  January,  1865,  for  fifty- three  dollars  in 
the  debased  currency.  After  the  fall  of  Richmond,  the 
Confederate  money  passed  out  of  circulation.     The  notes 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     283 

were  lost  or  destroyed  or  found  their  way  into  historical 
museums. 

In  her  extremity  the  South  resorted  to  various  other 
financial  expedients  that  had  proven  futile  during  the 
Revolutionary  War.  Men  who  refused  to  receive  Con- 
federate money  were  denounced  as  traitors  and  condemned 
by  the  state  legislatures  to  heavy  penalties ;  price  con- 
ventions were  held  with  a  view  to  fixing  fair  rates  of  ex- 
change ;  stay  laws  were  passed  suspending  the  collection 
of  debts,  notably  in  case  of  Confederate  soldiers,  tUl  the 
close  of  the  war ;  the  sequestration  of  obligations  owing 
to  the  Federal  government  and  to  Northern  creditors 
was  ordered,  and  confiscation  of  Union  stores  and  the 
property  of  the  United  States  to  military  uses  was  au- 
thorized by  the  Confederate  Congress. 

Federal  Finances.  -  When  the  Charieston  batteries 
fired  on  Fort  Sumter,  the  Federal  government  was  entirely 
unprepared  for  war.  The  surplus  revenues  of  1857  were 
exhausted,  and  the  treasury  showed  a  deficit  of  $56,000,000 
Customs  receipts  under  the  Democratic  tariff  proving  in- 
adequate to  ordinary  expenditure,  the  rates  had  been  some- 
what increased  by  the  Morrill  Act  of  1861,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  recommendations  of  Secretary  Chase  a 
further  increase,  notably  in  the  revenue  duties  on  salt 
coffee,  and  tea,  was  legislated  in  the  first  vear  of  the  war' 
The  rates  were  raised  from  year  to  year,  but  the  customs 
receipts  did  not  wax  in  proportion.  Commerce  was 
seriously  interrupted  by  the  depredations  of  Confederate 
cruisers,  and  there  was  a  marked  decline  in  imports 


Schwab, 
Ch.  VI,  IX. 


Sherman, 
Recollec- 
tions, I,  Ch. 

XI,  XII. 

WeUs, 
Recent 
Financial, 
etc.,    Experi- 
ences of  the 
U.S. 

Dewey,  Ch. 

XII,  XIII. 

BoUes,  III, 
Bk.  I, 
Ch.  I-III. 


Year 

Customs  Receipts 

Imports 

1860-1861    

1861-1862    . 

$39,000,000 

$289,000,000 

1862-1863    . 

49,000,000 

189,000,000 

1863-1864    .     . 

69,000,000 

243,000,000 

1864-1865    . 

102,000,000 
85,000,000 

316,000,000 

239,000,000 

284      Industrial  History  of  the  Utiited  States 

Receipts  from  direct  taxes  were  also  disappointing,  and 
the  government  had  resort  to  other  devices.  Sumptuary 
taxes  were  laid  on  luxuries,  such  as  carriages,  yachts, 
billiard  tables,  and  plate;  Ucenses  were  exacted  of  many 
occupations ;  manufacturing  and  transportation  companies 
were  taxed  in  proportion  to  earnings;  stamps  were  re- 
quired on  contracts,  legal  documents,  etc. ;  and  excise 
duties  were  collected  from  the  producers  of  spirits,  ale, 
beer,  and  tobacco.  With  a  view  to  adjusting  the  burden 
to  wealth,  Congress,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  levied 
an  income  tax.  In  186 1  three  per  cent  was  laid  on  all  in- 
comes of  more  than  $800  a  year,  and  in  1865  this  tax  was 
raised  to  five  per  cent  on  incomes  ranging  from  $600  to 
$5000,  while  ten  per  cent  was  required  from  ampler  rev- 
enues. Since  the  Republican  party  was  enthusiastically 
supported  by  the  bulk  of  business  men,  there  was  Uttle 
protest  against  these  "  war  measures."  Even  the  income 
tax  was  paid  with  no  grumbling,  and  with  but  little  attempt 
at  evasion.  The  Federal  revenues  of  186 5-1 866  reached 
the  unprecedented  sum  of  $559,000,000;  but  military 
expenses  augmented  even  more  rapidly  than  income,  and 
the  goverimient  was  obliged  to  borrow  the  money  with 
which  to  carry  on  the  war. 


Expenditure  for  Army  and  Navy 


Bolles,  III, 
Bk.  I,  Ch. 
IV,  V,  VIII. 

Dewey, 
354-358. 


1861 $35,389,000 

1862 431,813,000 

1863 666,575,000 

1864 776,096,000 

1865 1,153,307,000 


In  February,  1862,  Congress  authorized  a  loan  of 
$500,000,000  in  long-term  bonds  at  six  per  cent,  and  at  the 
same  time  authorized  the  issue  of  $150,000,000  in  non-in- 
terest-bearing notes.  The  bonds  sold  but  slowly,  for  the 
rate  of  interest  in  view  of  the  risk  of  ultimate  repudiation 
was  not  high.  Only  $23,750,000  was  secured  from  bond 
sales  in  the  course  of  the  first  year,  and  the  goverimient 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     285 


was  forced  to  have  recourse  to  bills  of  credit.  An  issue  of 
$150,000,000  was  made  in  July,  1862,  and  equal  amounts 
were  ordered  in  January  and  March  of  1863.  The  act  of 
February,  1862,  had  given  these  "greenbacks"  legal  tender 
value,  and  the  constitutionality  of  this  provision  was  later 
sustained  by  the  Supreme  Court.  The  notes  neverthe- 
less declined  in  purchasing  power.  The  amount  of  de- 
preciation varied  with  the  fluctuating  fortunes  of  war,  but 
the  nadir  point  was  reached  in  July  and  August  of  1864, 
when  this  paper  dollar  was  worth  but  one  third  its  face  in 
gold.  On  June  30,  1864,  further  issues  were  forbidden, 
but  the  mischief  was  already  done.  The  depreciated  cur- 
rency had  driven  gold  from  circulation  everywhere  except 
on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  prices  of  all  commodities  were 
doubled  and  trebled.  It  is  estimated  that  the  war  debt 
was  at  least  one  fifth  greater  than  if  government  purchases 
had  been  made  in  specie. 


Mitchell, 
Hist,  of  the 
Greenbacks, 
Pt.  I. 

Dewey, 

360-367. 


Oberholtzer. 
Jay  Cooke 
and  the 
Financing  of 
the  Civil 
War. 

Mitchell, 
Hist,  of  the 
Greenbacks, 
40s,  419. 


Industrial  Transfonnation 

The    National    Banking    System. —  By    legislation    of  Dewey. 
February,  1863,  amended  in  June,  1864,  Congress  provided  317-328, 
for  a  national  bank  currency  guaranteed  by  government  ^^^  ^^' 
bonds.     Every  banking  association  complying  with  the 
terms  of  the  law  was  to  be  furnished  by  the  comptroller  Bolles. 
of  the  currency  with  engraved  notes  amounting  to  90  per  "i.  Bk.  I, 
cent  of  the  market  value  though  never  more  than  the  par  ^  ^^ ' 
value  of  the  securities  subscribed.     A  steady  demand  for  Ch!  IV. 
United  States  bonds  was  thus   developed.     The  sales  of 
1863  amounted  to  $400,000,000,  and  $600,000,000  addi- 
tional was  sold  without  difficulty  during  the  next  two 
years.     Sixteen  hundred  national  banks  were  organized, 
and  $175,000,000  of  redeemable  currency  was  issued  before 
the  close  of  the  war.    The  political  advantages  of  this 
poKcy  were  no  less  than  in  Hamilton's  day.     Bank  offi- 
cials and  stockholders  were  naturally  eager  to  maintain 
the  solvency  of  the  Federal  treasury,  and  all  the  business 
interests  of  the  North  were  firmlv  attached  to  the  ITnion 


m 

1 


Dewey, 

329-330, 
360-378. 

BoUes,  III, 
Bk.  II, 
Ch.  I,  n. 


Dewey, 

378-382. 


Report  of 
the  Sec.  of 
the  Treas., 

1897, 
CXXXI. 


Noyes, 
Forty  Years 
of  American 
Finance, 
Ch.  I,  III. 


286      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  fiscal  advantages  of  the  national  banking  system  were 
equally  important  and  enduring.  For  the  uncertainties 
of  seven  thousand  varieties  of  state  bank  notes  issued  by 
fifteen  hundred  private  banks  that  were  chartered  by 
twenty-nine  state  legislatures  of  varying  financial  pro- 
clivities, was  substituted  a  uniform  currency  whose  redemp- 
tion was  guaranteed  by  bonds  of  the  United  States.  The 
state  banks  could  make  but  a  losing  fight  against  such  odds, 
but  the  retirement  of  their  issues  was  forced  by  a  ten  per 
cent  tax  (March,  1865). 

Redemption  of  the  Greenbacks.  —  The  accumulated 
war  debt  of  the  Federal  government,  represented  in  bonds, 
treasury  notes,  certificates  of  indebtedness,  and  greenbacks, 
amounted  (September,  1865)  to  $2,546,000,000,  and  of  this 
enormous  sum  no  part  was  repudiated.  The  tax-paying 
capacity  of  the  country  was  ample  to  care  for  both  interest 
and  principal.  An  act  of  April,  1 866,  provided  for  the  fund- 
ing of  the  bond  issues  and  for  the  redemption  of  the  govern- 
ment notes.  Greenbacks  to  the  amount  of  $10,000,000 
were  to  be  called  in  and  exchanged  for  specie  within  the 
first  six  months,  and  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  was  au- 
thorized thereafter  to  redeem  not  more  than  $4,000,000 
per  month.  Only  $44,000,000  was  cancelled  in  accord- 
ance with  this  plan,  but  the  contraction  in  the  volume  of 
the  currency  was  attended  by  a  shrinkage  in  prices  that 
proxed  disturbing  to  business  interests  developed  under 
inflated  conditions.  The  redemption  of  this  part  of  the 
government  debt  was  opposed,  moreover,  by  the  advocates 
of  cheap  and  abundant  money  and  by  the  enemies  of  the 
national  banks.  Congress  yielded  to  popular  pressure; 
in  February,  1868,  the  cancelling  of  the  greenbacks  was 
suspended,  and  the  outstanding  notes  were  allowed  to  form 
a  permanent  element  in  our  circulating  medium.  The 
resumption  of  specie  payments  by  the  United  States 
treasury  in  1879  brought  these  legal  tender  notes  to  a  parity 
with  gold. 

Revival  of  Protective  Tariffs.  —  The  increase  of  import 
duties  was  necessitated  by  the  heavy  taxes  imposed  on 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     28/ 

domestic  industries,  a  tax  amounting  to  eight  and  fifteen 
and,  in  some  cases,  to  twenty  per  cent.  Our  factories,  dis- 
tilleries, and  iron  works,  burdened  by  such  requisitions, 
could  not  continue  to  produce  in  competition  with  untaxed 
imports,  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  excise  paid  on  textiles, 
on  iron  and  steel,  petroleum,  sugar,  salt,  paper,  leather,  etc., 
must  be  offset  by  corresponding  import  duties.  Within 
a  fortnight  of  the  passing  of  the  internal  revenue  act  of 
1862,  Congress  passed  a  tariff  law  raising  the  impost  on 
salt  from  12  cents  to  18  cents  per  hundredweight,  on 
glass  and  iron  manufactures  from  30  to  35  per  cent, 
on  cottons  from  25  to  30  per  cent,  on  silks  from  30  to  40 
per  cent,  on  woolens  from  25  to  30  per  cent  with  an  added 
specific  duty  of  18  cents  per  pound.  The  average  rate 
for  the  tariff  schedule  of  1862  was  37.2  per  cent. 

In  1864  a  second  internal  revenue  act  raised  the  excise 
and  income  taxes  and  greatly  increased  the  list  of  in- 
dustries subject  to  the  levy.  A  tariff  act  immediately 
followed,  by  which  the  average  rate  on  imports  was  raised 
to  47  per  cent.  The  duty  on  glass  manufactures  mounted 
from  35  to  40  per  cent,  10  per  cent  was  added  to  the  im- 
port tax  on  silks,  the  specific  duty  on  woolens  was  raised 
to  24  cents  per  pound  and  the  ad  valorem  rate  to  40 
per  cent,  while  the  duties  on  raw  wool  imposed  by  the 
Morrill  Tariff  were  doubled.  So  urgent  was  the  need  of 
revenue,  and  so  ready  were  loyal  Republicans  to  strengthen 
the  army  and  navy,  that  little  attention  was  given  to  the 
industrial  bearing  of  this  extraordinary  tariff  schedule. 
The  bill  was  accepted  as  it  came  from  the  Committee  on 
Ways  and  Means  without  amendment.  Only  three  days* 
discussion  was  allowed  it  in  the  House,  and  but  two  days* 
in  the  Senate.  Undoubtedly  the  representatives  of  certain 
business  interests  influenced  the  details  of  the  bill,  asking 
and  securing  better  rates  than  were  necessary  to  offset 
their  excise  tax,  and  the  result  was  a  degree  of  protection 
beyond  that  accorded  by  any  previous  tariff.  Import 
duties  as  high  or  higher  had  been  imposed  in  1812,  but  they 
were  laid  to  meet  the  financial  emergency  and  were  reduced 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S.. 
155-193. 

Rabbeno, 

200-258. 

BoUes,  ni, 
Bk.  II, 
Ch.  VII. 

Cong.  Globe 
1861-1862, 
1 196,  2979. 

Stanwood, 
II,  126-138. 


288      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


I  i  I 


V  ii' 


Dewey, 

391-401 


the  year  following  the  declaration  of  peace.  Not  so  the 
tariff  arising  out  of  the  Civil  War.  The  internal  taxes 
levied  by  the  Federal  Congress  (with  the  exception  of  the 
excise  on  Uquors,  tobacco,  matches,  patent  medicines,  etc.) 
were  repealed  before  1872  ;  but  no  corresponding  reduction 
of  import  duties  was  initiated  by  the  party  in  power. 
The  industries  that  had  prospered  within  the  tariff  barrier 
protested  against  opening  the  gates  to  foreign  products, 
and  they  were  too  influential  to  be  gainsaid.  Among  the 
people  at  large  a  protective  tariff  was  closely  associated 
with  the  vindication  of  Federal  authority  and  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves,  and  was  regarded  as  essential  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  Union. 
Stanwood,  As  it  became  evident  that  the  import  tax  imposed  a 

u,  Ch.  XIV.  heavy  burden  on  consumers,  sundry  attempts  were  made 
to  revise  the  schedule,  but  these  efforts  secured  only 
the  reduction  or  repeal  of  nonprotective  duties.  Finally, 
when  a  surplus  revenue  of  $100,000,000  had  accumulated 
from  customs  receipts.  Congress  was  forced  to  take  the 
question  of  revision  under  serious  consideration.  The  act 
of  1872  repealed  the  duties  on  tea  and  coffee,  halved  the 
tax  on  salt,  and  provided  that  l)ut  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
existing  duties  should  be  imposed  on  other  imports.  But 
the  financial  panic  of  1873  alarmed  the  friends  of  the  pro- 
tected interests,  the  horizontal  reduction  of  ten  per  cent 
was  repealed,  and  the  previous  rates  were  restored  in  the 
tariff  act  of  1875. 

Material  Prosperity.  —  The  war  demands,  coupled  with 
the  protective  tariff,  induced  an  extraordinary  activity 
in  every  department  of  business  enterprise.  Universal 
buoyancy  and  unbounded  confidence  in  the  future  ren- 
dered it  easy  to  borrow  money  at  home  and  abroad. 
European  capitalists  invested  readily  in  United  States 
securities,  railroad  bonds,  and  mining  stock,  and  the  re- 
sources of  the  country  were  exploited  as  never  before. 
The  farm  acreage  was  doubled  and  the  farmers  began  to 
export  wheat  and  corn  and  cattle  to  Europe,  where  a  series 
of  crop  failures  insured  them  extraordinary  prices.    The 


1 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     289 

English  manufactures  offered  an  unlimited  market  for 
American  cotton  and  our  exports  developed  to  phenomenal 
proportions.  The  balance  of  trade,  which  had  been  against 
us  since  1850,  was  reversed  in  our  favor  in  1875.  The 
annual  output  of  pig  iron  was  doubled,  that  of  coal  quin- 
tupled, while  the  production  of  steel  increased  a  hundred- 
fold in  the  decade  following  on  the  war.  The  iron  ranges 
of  the  Lake  Superior  region  were  opened  up  and  began 
shipping  ore  in  vast  quantiries  to  the  works  at  Pittsburg, 
Buffalo,  Cleveland,  and  Chicago.  The  Marquette,  Me- 
nominee, and  Gogebic  ranges  were  within  easy  reach  of  the 
ports,  whence  direct  transportation  by  freight  steamer  was 
provided.  Improvements  in  methods  of  mining  and  smelt- 
ing soon  reduced  the  cost  of  producing  iron  and  steel  to  the 
EngUsh  average. 

Meantime,  the  copper  deposits  of  the  Keweenaw  Penin- 
sula were  contributing  their  share  to  the  gains  of  this  phe- 
nomenal period.  Minmg  operarions  had  begun  in  1844, 
but  the  output  was  inconsiderable  till  after  the  war.  In 
1875  the  copper  mines  of  northern  Michigan  produced 
sixteen  thousand  tons,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  total  yield  of 
the  United  States.  Since  copper  was  then  selling  at  $400 
per  ton,  this  was  an  investment  even  more  attractive  than 
that  offered  by  the  iron  ranges.  Entrepreneurs  and  work- 
men swarmed  into  the  new  El  Dorado,  and  the  wastes  of 
the  Upper  Peninsula  were  converted  into  income-bearing 
properties. 

The  yield  of  gold  from  California  had  fallen  off,  but 
other  sources  of  supply  were  found.  The  Comstock  Lode, 
bearing  veins  of  gold  and  sUver  in  fortunate  conjunction' 
was  discovered  in  1859.  Here,  in  the  heart  of  the  Great 
Basm,  in  precisely  the  most  barren  region  of  the  CordiUeran 
Range,  a  fountain  of  wealth  was  opened  up.  In  i860  silver 
was  produced  to  the  value  of  $550,000,  and  gold  to  the 
value  of  $200,000;  prospectors  and  speculators  flocked 
to  the  district,  and  mushroom  towns  sprang  into  being 
The  population  of  Nevada  grew  from  6857  in  i860  to 
42,491  in  1870,  and  62,266  in  1880.    The  cUmax  of  pro- 


Fite,  Social 
and  Indus- 
trial Condi- 
tions during 
the  Civil 
War,  Ch. 
II.  IV. 


Si>ecial  Rept 
U.  S.  Census 
on  Mines 
and  Quarries 
1902, 

395-425. 


Rept.  on 
Mines  and 
Quarries, 
482-486. 


Rept.  on 
Mines  and 
Quarries, 
563,  571-577. 

Shinn,  Story 
of  the  Mine, 
Ch.  I,  II. 


I 


290      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

duction  was  reached  in  1877,  when  the  Comstock  Lode 
yielded  gold  and  silver  to  the  value  of  $36,000,000.  There- 
after the  output  declined,  and  Nevada  yielded  first  place 
to  Colorado.  The  production  of  the  precious  metals 
began  to  exceed  domestic  needs,  and  the  surplus  was  ex- 
ported. In  1873  we  sent  $40,000,000  worth  of  silver  to 
foreign  markets,  and  in  1875  $67,000,000  worth  of  gold. 

The  development  of  manufactures  was  no  less  phe- 
nomenal than  that  of  mines.  New  inventions  and  im- 
proved machinery  stimulated  business  enterprise  in  every 
Une  of  production.  The  increase  in  the  number  of  estab- 
lishments, output,  employees,  and  wages  during  the  war 
decade  exceeded  that  of  the  decades  before  and  after. 

Development  of  Manufactures 


Decade 

Establishments 

Employees 

Wages  Paid 

Output 

1850-1860 
1860-1870 
1870-1880 

Increase 
'         14.2  % 
79.6 

•7 

Increase 

370% 
56.6 

330 

Increase 
60.0  % 

104.7 
22.2 

85-S  % 
124.4 

26.9 

Tarbell,  Hist.  Notable  among  the  material  achievements  of  the  war 
of  the  Stand-  period  was  the  utilization  of  a  new  and  valuable  raw 
Company,  I,  material,  petroleum.  The  farmers  of  northwestern  Penn- 
Ch.  I,  II.  sylvania  had  long  known  and  used  in  rude  fashion  the 
"  rock  oil "  that  floated  to  the  surface  of  streams  and 
ponds.  It  was  at  first  bottled  for  medicinal  purposes,  and 
Seneca  Oil,  Keer's  Oil,  etc.,  were  sold  as  liniment  all  over 
the  United  States.  Finally  the  inflammable  character 
of  the  fluid  attracted  the  attention  of  scientists,  and 
analysis  proved  that  petroleum  possessed  constituents 
of  high  market  value.  Distillation  developed  illuminating 
oil,  lubricating  oil,  naphtha,  gasoline,  benzine,  paraffin, 
etc.  A  company  was  organized  in  Boston  to  produce  and 
refine  petroleum  on  a  large  scale,  and  their  agent,  E.  L. 


Bishop,  II, 
501-502. 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     291 

Drake,  sunk  an  artesian  well  at  Titusville  in  the  summer 
of  1859,  from  which  he  pumped  twenty-five  barrels  of  oil 
on  the  first  day.    Since  crude  petroleum  was  then  worth 
$20  a  barrel,  his  success  converted  this  remote  and  barren 
region  into  a  scene  of  wild  speculation.     The  farmers 
began  to  drill  for  oil,  and  many  a  man  discovered  a  fountain 
of  wealth  beneath  his  rugged  fields.    Prospectors  flocked 
to  the  region  and  bought  claims  at  random,  and  soon  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Allegheny  River  and  its  tributaries, 
French  and  Oil  Creeks,  was  bristling  with  pumps  and  der- 
ricks.   The  total  output  of  1859  was  two  thousand  barrels. 
Many  of  the  wells  required  no  pumping,  but  gushed  oil 
night  and  day,  while  a  yield  of  two,  three,  and  four  thousand 
barrels  a  day  was  not  extraordinary.     The  difficulty  was 
to  dispose  of  the  product.     At  first  the  crude  oil  was 
carted  in  barrels  to  the  river,  loaded  on  scows,  and  floated 
downstream  to  Pittsburg;    but  a  branch  railroad   from 
Erie  was  built  to  Titusville  in  1863,  and  to  Oil  City  by 
1865.    Then  pipes  were  laid  from  the  wells  to  the  railway, 
and  iron  tanks  were  constructed  at  centers  of  deposit  for 
storing  the  oil.     Forty  million  barrels  of  crude  oil  were 
brought  to  the  surface  in  the  first  twelve  years,  refined, 
and  sold  in  the  domestic  and  foreign  market.     The  new 
illuminant  was  sent   to   Egypt,  China,  East  India,  and 
Africa,  and  by  1872  reached  fourth  rank  in  the  exports 
of  the  United  States.   Meantime,  twenty  refineries  had  been 
set  up  in  the  oil  region,  but  these  enterprises  were  ham- 
pered by  the  difficulty  of  getting  distilling  apparatus  and  the 
necessary  chemicals  over  rough  mountain  roads.     It  was 
cheaper  to  transport  the  crude  oil  to  Pittsburg,  Cleveland, 
or  Erie.    The  refining  business  was  even  undertaken  at 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Baltimore,  and  foreign 
consignees  began  to  ask  for  crude  oil  that  they  might  secure 
the  profits  of  manufacture.    By  1869  Cleveland  took  the  u.  s.  Census, 
lead  m  the  refining  of  oil,  distancbig  in  capacity  and  value  '^oo,  x, 
of  output  Pittsburg,  New  York,  Boston,  and  the  oil  region  ^^'"^^^• 
Itself.    The  largest  and  most  enterprising  of  the  Cleveland 
refineries,  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  succeeded  in  buying 


II 


Marvin, 
Ch.  XIV 

Bates, 
Ch.  IX. 


96-130. 


292      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

up  ^  local  competitors,  and  in  securing  from  the  railroads 
preferential  freight  rates  that  gave  its  product  an  advan- 
tage in  Eastern  and  Western  markets.  Wholesale  pro- 
duction gave  opportunity  to  convert  the  wastes  of  the 
refinery  into  by-products  far  more  valuable  than  the  main 
output. 

The  wealth  of  the  country  as  a  whole,  despite  the  disas- 
ters that  had  fallen  on  the  South,  rose  from  $16,000,000,000 
in  i860  to  $39,000,000,000  in  1870  and  $43,000,000,000 
in  1880.  During  this  same  twenty-year  period,  the  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  grew  from  thirty  millions  to 
fifty  miUions,  an  extraordinary  increase  but  yet  less  rapid 
than  that  of  wealth. 

Per  Capita  Wealth 


Year 

U.S. 

No.  Atl. 

No.  Cent. 

So.  Atl. 

So.  Cent 

Western 

1S60   .  . 

$514 

$528 

$436 

$537 

$598 

$434 

1870   .  . 

780 

1243 

735 

384 

334 

843 

1880   .  . 

850 

1207 

932 

495 

435 

1 291 

1890   .  . 

1039 

1232 

1129 

579 

569 

2250 

The  increase  in  per  capita  wealth  of  the  Northern  states 
is  the  more  remarkable  because  of  the  accessions  to  popu- 
lation five  and  a  half  millions  were  newly  arrived  immi- 
grants. The  Irish,  German,  and  Scandinavian  peasants, 
who  thronged  into  the  North  Atlantic  ports,  made  a  wel- 
come addition  to  the  labor  force,  but  contributed  little 
capital  to  the  communities  in  which  they  settled. 

Decline  of  our  Mercantile  Marine.  —  In  striking  con- 
trast to  the  development  of  mining  and  manufactures 
shows  the  decay  of  the  shipping  interest.  During  the  civil 
u.  s.  Census,  Conflict  United  States  vessels  were  fairly  driven  from  the 
1880,  VIII,  sea  by  the  mischances  of  war.  The  Confederate  govern- 
ment had  no  navy  and  abandoned  all  hope  of  breaking 
the  blockade  of  Southern  ports,  but  half  a  dozen  men-of- 


Ctvil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     293 

war,  purchased  in  England,  managed  to  effect  great  dam-  Report  of 
age  on  American  commerce.     The  Florida  and  the  Alabama  Joseph 
scoured  the  high  seas,  seeking  merchantmen  flying  the  ^'""T' 
Federal  flag.     Since   these  were   usually   wooden  saiUng  'fsisTn' 
vessels  and  unarmed,  they  fell  easy  prey  to  the  Confederate  ^^'  ^^^cs.. 
cruisers,  and  the  loss  in  ships  sunk,  burned,  or  captured   "'* 
amounted  to  110,000  tons.     Abnormal  insurance  charges 
and  the  difi^culty  of  securing  cargoes  for  vessels  Hable  to 
seizure,  rendered  ocean  commerce  unprofitable.     American 
ships  were  held  in  port  or  made  over  to  the  government 
or  "sold  foreign"  at  ruinous  sacrifice.     The  ships  pur- 
chased by  the  government  were  converted  into  transports 
or  crmsers,  and  did  effective  work  throughout  the  war 
more  than  one  half  of  the  suddenly  improvised  Federal 
navy  bemg  made  up  of  armed  merchantmen.     Four  fifths 
of  the  officers  and  five  sixths  of  the  men  came  directly  from 
the  merchant  service. 

The  falling  off  in  United  States  vessels  registered  for  Johnson, 
loreign  trade  amounted  to  one  nullion  tons      The  pro-  ^^^^"^ 
portion  of  foreign  commerce  accruing  to  American  vessels  lloT^"^' 
declined  from  66  per  cent  in  i860  to  27  per  cent  in  186^.    Ch.'xx. 
1  he  transatlantic  trade  of   1866  exceeded  that  of  any 
previous  year,  and  our  merchants  bravely  strove  to  re- 
cover their  due  share  of  freight ;  but  it  was  a  losing  battle, 
for  they  came  into  competition  with  the  subsidized  Unes 
of  England.     In  vain  they  petitioned  for  government  aid 
Congress  awarded  a  mail  subsidy  of  $15,000  to  a  line  run-  Cong.  Globe 
mng  from  New  York  to  Brazil,  and  another  of  $500,000  to    ^^Z 
the  Pacific  mail  steamers,  but  no  such  support  was  vouch-    ^^^^-^ns. 
safed  to  entrepreneurs  in  the  Atlantic  service.  tiUi. 

American  shipbuilders,  too,  labored  under  heavy  dis-   w  ,. 

vessels  and  of  from  3  to  5  per  cent  on  marine  engines  was  p    .    , 

cSr     "  •''';  '"^  '^'"^  '^^^^^  ^^  ^^^^^^^'  ^--    -d  L^thl.- 
^fTnH      A    ^'""^     ''"'  ^°  ^"^  ^5  per  cent,  were  allowed  to  '"^"^' 
stand.     A  congressional  committee,  appointed  (1870)  to  ""T^^^^' 
mvest^ate  the  shipping  industry,  recommended  She  repeal   HotTep. 
of  the  duties  on  shipbmlders'  raw  materials.    Copper  ^°-  '^' 


Bates, 
Ch.  XI. 


President's 
Message, 
41st  Cong., 
2d  Session, 
Ex.  Doc. 
IIS- 

Cong.  Rec- 
ord, VIII, 
Pt.  Ill, 

Appendix, 
23-26. 


Donaldson, 
332-350. 

Sato,  428- 
439. 

Powderly, 
Thirty  Years 
of  Labor, 
Ch.  VIII. 

Cong.  Globe, 
1850,  1149- 
1150- 


294      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

sheathing,  iron  rods  and  bars,  bolts,  etc.,  "  necessary  for 
the  construction  of  vessels  built  in  the  United  States  for 
the  foreign  trade  "  were  accordingly  admitted  free  under 
the  tariff  act  of  1872.  The  duties  were,  however,  reim- 
posed  in  1875,  because  of  protests  from  the  men  who  had 
iron  and  copper  to  sell.  With  the  passing  of  the  wooden 
sailing  vessel,  our  preeminence  in  shipbuilding  was  lost. 
The  new  steamers  could  be  built  more  economically  in 
England,  where  fuel,  iron,  and  labor  were  comparatively 
cheap.  There  was  some  agitation  for  the  admission  of 
foreign-built  ships  to  our  registry,  but  the  proposition  was 
defeated.  The  shipbuilders  protested  against  the  reversal 
of  a  policy  that  had  held  for  eighty  years,  and  handicapped 
by  these  permanent  disadvantages,  our  ocean  marine 
steadily  declined. 

The  war  that  had  proved  so  disastrous  to  our  ocean 
marine  stimulated  the  growth  of  the  coastwise  service. 
The  transportation  of  troops  and  provisions  gave  profitable 
employment,  and  ocean  steamers  were  temporarQy  con- 
verted to  this  trade.  The  tonnage  of  coasting  craft  rose 
from  2,599,319  in  i860  to  3j353.657  i^  1865.  Moreover, 
the  exploitation  of  the  lumber  lands  and  mineral  deposits 
of  the  Lake  Superior  region  brought  into  requisition  freight 
and  passenger  steamers  of  size  and  speed  approaching  the 
sea-going  models.  The  traffic  of  the  Great  Lakes  began 
to  rival  the  transatlantic  trade  in  dimensions  and  value, 
and  offered  some  compensation  for  the  vantage  lost  on 
the  high  seas. 

The  Homestead  Act.  —  Agitation  for  the  free  dis- 
tribution of  the  pubUc  lands  had  been  persistent  and  \m- 
flagging  for  twenty  years  before  the  war.  The  Free-Soil 
Democracy  had  led  the  movement  with  its  proposal  that 
"  the  soil  of  our  extensive  domain  be  kept  free  for  the 
hardy  pioneers  of  our  own  land  and  the  oppressed  and 
banished  of  other  lands  seeking  homes  of  comfort  and 
fields  of  enterprise  in  the  New  World."  Whigs,  like 
Daniel  Webster,  humanitarians,  like  Horace  Greeley, 
aboUtionists,   like   Gerrit   Smith,    labor   reformers,   like 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     295 

George  Henry  Evans,  were  not  less  ardent  supporters  of 
a  democratic  land  policy.     In  1845  Andrew  Johnson  of 
Tennessee  had  brought  forward  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives a  resolution  in  favor  of  giving  every  homeless 
citizen  a  portion  of  the  national  domain,  and  Senator 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  introduced  a  bill  to  the  same  effect  in 
1849.     Several  times  a  homestead  bill  passed  the  House 
of  Representatives,  only  to  be  defeated  in  the  Senate,  the 
negative  vote  coming  largely  from  the  Southern  states, 
which  then  held  the  balance  of  power  in  the  upper  house. 
Finally  (June  19,  i860),  after  lengthy  conferences,  Senate 
and  House  agreed  to  concur  in  a  bill  providing  that  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  being  the  head  of  a  family, 
might  take  up  a  quarter  section  of  unappropriated  public 
land,  settle  thereon,  and  secure  title  after  proved  residence 
of  five  years.    The  Senate's  contention,  that  a  cash  pay- 
ment of  twenty-five  cents  an  acre  be  required,  was  accepted 
by  the   House   with   considerable   demur,  but   even   so, 
the  bill  was  vetoed  by  President  Buchanan.     In  a  message 
to  Congress  the  President  justified  this  action  as  follows. 
The  free  distribution  of  public  lands  would  be  unjust  to 
the  "  old  settlers,"  who  paid  $1.25  per  acre  for  their  lands, 
and  whose  "  labors  in  building  roads,  schools,  and  market 
towns  had  increased  the  value  of  the  adjacent  and  un- 
occupied lands  now  to  be  given  out  at  25  cents  an  acre." 
It  could  confer  no  benefits  on  artisans  and  laborers  of 
factory  towns,  who  "  cannot,  even  by  emigrating  to  the 
West,  take  advantage  of  the  provisions  of  this  bill  without 
entering  upon  a  new  occupadon,  for  which  their  habits  of 
life  have  rendered  them  unfit."    It  would  operate  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  older  states,  whose  supply  of  public 
lands  was  exhausted,  and  whose  populadon  would  be  drawn 
off  by  the  prospect  of  cheap  lands  farther  west.     "  The 
offer  of  free  farms  would  probably  have  a  powerful  effect 
in   encouraging   emigration,    especially   from   states   Uke 
llUnois,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky,  to  the  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  could  not  fail  to  reduce  the  price  of  property 
within  their  limits."    The  President  further  raised  the 


Cong.  Globe, 
1849-1850, 
75,  87. 

Cong.  Globe, 

1854,  Ap- 
pendix. 
207-209. 


Donaldson, 
345. 


Cong.  Globe, 
1861-1862, 
40,  132-139, 
909-910. 


296      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

question  whether  it  was  "expedient  to  proclaim  to  aB 
nations  of  the  earth  that  whoever  shall  arrive  in  this 
country  from  a  foreign  shore,  and  declare  his  intention  to 
become  a  citizen,  shall  receive  a  farm  of  160  acres  at  a  cost 
of  25  or  20  cents  per  acre,  if  he  will  only  reside  on  it  and 
cultivate  it."  The  loss  to  the  government  in  the  way  of 
revenue  would,  moreover,  be  considerable.  The  annual 
income  from  this  source  ($4,000,000)  would  be  reduced 
to  $1,000,000.  "The  people  of  the  United  States  have 
advanced  with  steady  but  rapid  strides  to  their  present 
condition  of  power  and  pros|>erity.  They  have  been 
guided  in  their  progress  by  the  fixed  principle  of  pro- 
tecting the  equal  rights  of  all,  whether  they  be  rich  or 
poor.  No  agrarian  sentiment  has  ever  prevailed  among 
them.  The  honest  poor  man,  by  frugality  and  industry 
can,  in  any  part  of  our  country,  acquire  a  competence 
for  himself  and  his  family,  and  in  doing  this  he  feels  that 
he  eats  the  bread  of  independence.  He  desires  no  charity, 
either  from  the  government  or  from  his  neighbors.  This 
bill,  which  proposes  to  give  him  land,  at  an  almost  nominal 
price,  out  of  the  property  of  the  government,  will  go  far 
to  demoralize  the  people,  and  repress  this  noble  spirit  of 
independence.  It  may  introduce  among  us  those  per- 
nicious social  theories  which  have  proved  so  disastrous 
in  other  countries." 

When  the  slave  states  had  withdrawn  their  representa- 
tives from  the  Federal  legislature,  the  Homestead  Bill 
passed  both  Houses  without  opf)osition,  and  received  the 
signature  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  M ay  20, 1862.  The  acreage 
charge  did  not  appear  in  the  final  enactment,  and  a  special 
concession  was  made  to  Union  soldiers  in  that  they  were 
allowed  to  deduct  from  the  five  years'  occupancy  required 
to  establish  dtle,  the  term  of  army  service.  Homestead 
entries  were  inaugurated  immediately,  and  proved  very 
popular.  Quarter  section  farms  to  the  amount  of  twenty- 
seven  milKon  acres  were  claimed  between  1867  and  1874. 
The  revenue  from  land  sales  dechned  as  Buchanan  had 
foreseen,  but  the  loss  was  soon  made  good  in  the  enlarged 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     297 

tax-paying  capacity  of  the  West.  To  some  extent  popu- 
lation was  drawn  from  the  East,  and  the  value  of  agri- 
cultural land  in  the  seaboard  states  depreciated.  The 
center  of  population,  of  wealth,  and  of  manufactures 
moved  steadily  west.  The  opportunity  to  get  possession 
of  land  without  money  and  without  price  attracted  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  Old  Worid  peasants  to  the  United 
States.  Between  i860  and  1870,  800,000  Germans  and 
456,000  Irish  came  to  America,  and  the  inflow  augmented 
from  year  to  year,  until,  in  1873,  the  annual  immigration 
attained  the  starthng  total  of  460,000. 

The  democratic  land  policy  was  far  from  prejudicial  to 
the  artisan  class,  since  operatives  in  the  East,  young  men 
at  least,  were  free  to  choose  between  a  farm  and  a  trade. 
Surplus  labor  was  thus  drained  off  to  the  West,  and  the 
rate  of  wages  was  readily  maintained  at  the  standard  of 
Hving  set  by  the  self-employed  farmer.  Speculation  in 
land  and  land  monopoly  were  rendered  difficult,  since  no 
man  might  take  up  more  than  two  quarter  sections  —  one 
of  arable  land  and  one  of  timber  land.  The  average 
size  of  holdings  decUned  from  199  acres  in  i860  to  153  in 
1870,  and  134  in  1880,  and  intensive  farming  became 
more  general. 

The  Transcontinental  Railways.  —  The  project  for  a 
railway  that  should  span  the  Cordilleran  Range,  make 
connection  between  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  Cali- 
fornia coast,  and  thus  serve  as  channel  for  the  westward 
movement  of  population  as  well  as  facihtate  trade  with 
the  Pacific  ports,  with  China  and  the  Far  East,  had  been 
agitating  the  minds  of  men  for  twenty  years  before  it 
was  actually  undertaken.  The  scheme  was  first  brought 
before  Congress  in  a  memorial  drawn  up  by  Asa  Whitney 
in  1845.  This  far-seeing  New  York  merchant  proposed 
to  bmld  a  road  from  Lake  Michigan  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River,  and  petitioned  for  a  grant  of  land  sixty 
miles  wide  along  the  entire  route.  This  was  to  be  assigned 
in  ten-mile  sections  as  construction  proceeded,  and  there- 
after sold  by  the  railway  company  to  settiers  as  fast  as 


Davis,  The 
Union  Pacific 
Railway, 

ch.  i-ni. 


Smalley, 
Northern 
Pacific 
Railroad, 

Ch.  vn,  X. 


Whitney, 
Project  for 
a  Railroad 
to  the 
Pacific. 


De  Bow, 
II,  486-519. 


298      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

they  arrived.  "It  is  proposed  to  establish  an  entirely 
new  system  of  settlement,  on  which  the  hopes  of  success 
are  based,  and  upon  which  all  depend.  The  settler  on  the 
line  of  the  road  would,  as  soon  as  his  house  or  cabin  was 
up  and  a  crop  in,  find  employment  to  grade  the  road ;  the 
next  season,  when  his  crop  will  have  ripened,  there  would 
be  a  market  for  it  at  his  door,  by  those  in  the  same  situa- 
tion as  himself  the  season  before ;  if  any  surplus,  he  would 
have  the  road  at  low  tolls  to  take  it  to  market ;  and  if  he 
had  in  the  first  instance  paid  for  his  land,  the  money  would 
go  back,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  for  labor  and  materials 
for  the  work.  So  that  in  one  year  the  settler  would  have 
his  home,  with  settlement  and  civilization  surrounding, 
a  demand  for  his  labor,  a  market  at  his  door  for  his  produce, 
a  railroad  to  communicate  with  civilization  and  markets, 
without  having  cost  one  dollar.  And  the  settler  who  might 
not  have  means  in  money  to  purchase  land,  his  labor  on 
the  road  and  a  first  crop  would  give  him  that  means,  and 
he  too  would  in  one  year  have  his  home  with  the  same 
advantages  and  equally  independent." 

Whitney  estimated  the  cost  of  construction  at  $50,000,000, 
and  this  sum,  together  with  running  expenses  for  the 
initial  years,  he  expected  to  realize  from  land  sales.  The 
road  was  to  be  a  national  highway,  operated  in  the 
public  interest,  and  the  rates  charged  for  transportation 
were  to  be  merely  sufficient  to  cover  current  expenses. 
WTiitney  advocated  his  patriotic  project  on  the  platform 
and  in  the  press  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
country,  making  modifications  in  his  plan  from  time  to 
time  with  a  view  to  securing  the  support  of  iniluential 
cities.  His  first  route  was  drawn  from  Milwaukee  through 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  to  Portland,  Oregon;  the 
second  connected  Prairie  du  Chien  with  Tacoma;  the 
third,  in  deference  to  Southern  interests,  was  to  run  from 
Memphis  through  New  Mexico,  to  San  Francisco.  Bills 
embodying  these  and  other  routes  came  before  Congress 
session  after  session  in  the  last  decade  before  the  Civil 
War,   but   sectional   feeling  ran   high.    Southern   repre- 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     299 

sentatives  advocated  a  line  from  Charleston  through 
Vicksburg  to  San  Diego;  the  miners  of  California  and 
Nevada  clamored  for  a  central  route  via  the  Salt  Lake 
Trail  from  St.  Louis  to  Sacramento.  Every  party  and  all 
public  men  declared  in  favor  of  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road; but  local  interests  were  strong  enough  to  defeat 
each  specific  measure  until  the  RepubUcan  party  came  into 
full  control  of  the  national  government. 

By  enactments  of  1862  and  1864  Congress  chartered  the  Davis 
Umon  Pacific  Railroad  Company  and  authorized  the  con-  Ch.  iv. 
struction  of  a  road  from  Omaha  directly  west  to  Ogden,  Smalley, 
,    the  proposed  point  of  junction  with  the  Central  Pacific  ^^-  ^™' 
Railway,  already  incorporated  by  the  state  of  California.  ™^' 
Rival  mterests  on  the  Missouri  River  were  provided  for 
by  branch  roads  to  Sioux  City,  St.  Joseph,  Leavenworth, 
and  Kansas  City ;  but  the  trunk  line  made  direct  connec- 
tion with  Chicago  and  the  railway  systems  centering  in 
New    York    and    Boston.     The   incorporated    companies 
were  given  the  right  of  way  along  the  projected  route 
(pnvate  property  bemg  subject  to  condemnation  for  this 
use),  together  with  such  lands  as  might  be  needed  for 
stations,   workshops,   etc.,   and   the  privilege   of   taking 
^mber,  stone,  and  earth,  as  might  be  required  for  the  track. 
To  defray  the  costs  of  construction  Congress  offered  Hberal 
grants  from  the  public  domain.     The  railroad  lands  were 
assigned,  as  construction  proceeded,  in  ten  alternate  sec- 
tions within  a  tract  twenty  miles  in  width,  on  each  side 
the  roadbed,  grants  previously  made  and  squatters'  claims 
bemg,  of  course,  excepted.     Thus,  within  forty-one  days 
after  the  passage  of  the  Homestead  Act,  Congress  au-  Donaldson, 
tnonzed  the  giving  away  of  23,500,000  acres  of  the  public  ^^'-^n. 
domam  to  private  corporations,  and  inaugurated  a  new 
phase  of  land  monopoly.     The  reservation  of  alternate 
sections  for  distribution  to  actual  settlers  was  intended 
to  secure  the  people's  rights,  but  the  ultimate  effect  was 

•/vl''?.^r ^  ^^^""^  ""^  ^^  '^^^'^^^  l^nds,  which  were  usuaUy 
withheld  from  sale. 

Congress  further  aided  this  vast  transportation  enter- 


1 

Fite,  Ch.  Ill 

Sanborn, 

Congres- 

sional 

Grants  of 

Land  in  Aid 

of  Railways, 
Ch.  V,  VI, 
VII,  VIII. 

Powell, 
Lands  of 
the  Arid 
Region, 
Ch.X. 


300      hidiistrial  History  of  the  United  States 

prise  by  offering  to  guarantee  the  bonds  issued  by  the  com- 
panies to  the  amount  of  $65,000,000.     The  bonds  were  to 
run  for  thirty  years  at  six  per  cent,  and  constituted  a  second 
mortgage  Uen  on  the  raUroad  property.     The  first  year's 
mterest  was  paid  from  the  United  States  treasury,  and  the 
government  stood  sponsor  for  subsequent  interest  charges 
as  weU  as  for  the  payment  of  the  principal.     Thus  indorsed' 
the  bonds  were  readily  disposed  of  at  public  sale.     Con- 
struction   proceeded    rapidly.     Irishmen    were    imported 
as  laborers  on  the  eastern  divisions  of  the  road,  whHe 
Chmese  built  the  greater  part  of  the  Central   Pacific. 
Ihe  entire  hne  was  in  operation  by  1869.     The  initial 
passenger  tariff  of  ten  cents  a  mile  was  so  high  as  to  be 
well-mgh  prohibitory.     Congress  had  reserved  the  right 
to  regulate  fares  and  freight  rates  as  soon  as  the  net  earn- 
ings should  exceed  ten  per  cent  on  the  mvestment,  but  the 
rates  were  reduced  by  the  management  long  before  this 
happy  consummation  was  attained. 

With  the  close  of  the  war  and  the  disbanding  of  the  armies 
the  demand  for  transportation  faciUdes  to  the  new  West 
grew  even  more  urgent.     In  the  decade  following  the  char- 
tenng  of  the  Union  Pacific,  the  bulk  of  railroad  building 
was  west  of  the  Mississippi  River.     In  the  first  thirty 
years  of  railroad  history,  construction  had  followed  on 
the  heels  of  trade,  and  routes  were  determined  by  prospect 
of  profits   but  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  inaugurated  a 
new  epoch.     If  the  West  was  to  be  developed  by  free  labor 
railroads  must  be  pushed  in  advance  of  population,  in 
advance  of  the  organization  of  state  governments.     The 
costs  of  building  were  enormous  and  the  traffic  light  in 
proportion  to  distance  covered.     These  great  undertakings 
could  only  be  set  on  foot  by  aid  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment.     Within  the  ten  years  following  the  grant  to  the 
Union  Pacific,  215,000,000  acres  of  public  land  had  been 
assigned  to  various  railroad  enterprises,  always  on  con- 
dition of  completing  the  roadway  within  a  specified  term. 
Several  of   the  grants  were  forfeited  by  noncompliance, 
but  the  lands  secured  by  railroad  corporations  amounted 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     301 

to  102,000,000  acres,  nearly  half  the  sum  total  of  the  farm 
area  granted  under  the  Homestead  Act. 

The  sacrifices,  economic  and  social,  involved  in  the 
building  of  our  transcontinental  railways  have  been  heavy, 
but  the  gains  to  the  settlers  and  to  the  country  at  large 
have  been  beyond  computation.  Home  seekers  make  their 
way  to  new  lands  at  far  less  cost  in  time  and  money  and 
in  physical  wear  and  tear,  than  in  the  days  of  the  prairie 
schooner  and  the  wayside  camp.  The  great  trunk  fines 
rendered  it  possible  to  sell  Western  products  to  Eastern 
markets,  the  manufacturing  sections  were  brought  within 
reach  of  the  mining  towns  and  lumber  camps  of  the  Rockies. 
Oriental  markets  were  opened  up  to  the  cotton  planters 
of  the  South,  to  the  cotton  manufacturers  of  New  England. 
Whitney's  dream  was  at  last  fulfilled :  "  Then  the  drills 
and  sheetings  of  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island  and  Massa- 
chusetts and  other  manufactures  of  the  United  States  may 
be  transported  to  China  in  thirty  days ;  and  the  teas  and 
rich  silks  of  China,  in  exchange,  come  back  to  New  Orleans, 
to  Charleston,  to  Washington,  to  Baltimore,  to  Phila- 
delphia, New  York  and  to  Boston  in  thirty  days  more." 

The  Crisis  of  1873.  —  This  epoch  of  unparalleled  pros- 
perity was  terminated  by  a  business  panic  and  industrial 
depression,  exceeding  in  extent  and  severity  any  the  coun- 
try had  yet  experienced.  Every  fine  of  business  had  felt 
the  stimulus  of  war  tariffs  and  war  prices.  In  anticipa- 
tion of  unusual  profits,  entrepreneurs  borrowed  heavily 
and  at  high  rates  of  interest  to  develop  iron  works  and 
clothing  factories,  flour  mills  and  abattoirs,  mines  and  oil 
refineries,  without  much  regard  to  prospects  for  disposing 
of  the  goods.  The  inevitable  consequences  of  this  specu- 
lative spirit  were  overproducrion  in  every  branch  of  in- 
dustry, a  general  glut  of  the  market,  and  a  ruinous  decHne 
m  prices.  The  reduction  of  import  duties  in  1872,  and  the 
menace  of  foreign  competition,  was  sufficient  to  capsize 
some  of  these  overioaded  enterprises.  Unable  to  market 
their  stock  at  paying  prices,  many  business  firms  failed  to 
meet  their  obligarions  and  went  into  bankruptcy.     The 


Martin,  The 
Grange 
Movement, 
Pt.  L 


Burton, 
Financial 
Crises, 
286-289. 

Wright, 
Industrial 
Depressions, 
60-64. 

U.  S.  Census, 
igoo,  X,  8. 


Rhodes, 
United 
States,  VII, 
Ch.  XL 


302      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

influence  of  industrial  depression  is  seen  in  statistics  of 
manufactures  for  the  decade. 

Another  form  of  speculative  mania  was  represented  in 
Western  railroads.  The  Uberal  policy  of  the  government 
gave  promoters  a  basis  on  which  to  soUcit  subscriptions  to 
stocks  and  bonds  that  could  bring  no  return  to  the  pur- 
chaser. The  sums  invested  in  railway  construction  during 
the  decade  following  on  the  chartering  of  the  Union  Pacific 
aggregated  more  than  a  billion  dollars.     The    railroads 


IMPORTS 

1,200,000,000 

1,100,000,000 

1,000,000,000 

fOO,000,000 

800,000,000 

700,000,000 

•00,000,000 

■00,000,000 
400,000,000 

800,000,000 
S00,000,000 
100,000,000 


SALES  OF 
PUBLIC 
LANDS 

24,000,000 
S3,000,0C0 
22,000,000 
21,000,000 
40,000,000 
19,0OO,C0O 
18,000,000 
17,000,000 
16,000,000 
16,000;000 

14,000,000 

13,000,000 

12,000,000 

11,000,000 

10,000,000 

9,(]00,00« 

8,000,000 

7,000,000 

6,000,000 

B,000,000 

4,000,000 

3,000,000 

2.000,000 

1,000,000 

0 


Relation  of  Imports^  Sales  of  Public  Lands,  and 
Railroad  Construction  to  Financial  Crises 

-Sales  of  Public  Lands     ••— y^Mileage  of  Railroad  Construction 
■  Amount  of  Imports  f  The  Crisis  Years 


built  between  1867  and  1873  amounted  to  thirty-two  thou- 
sand miles,  a  sum  total  exceeding  the  total  mileage  of  1859. 
An  undue  proportion  of  the  available  capital  of  the  country 
was  sunk  in  roadbed  and  rolling  stock.  Unable  to  meet 
the  interest  on  the  bonded  debt,  much  less  provide  for 
the  payment  of  the  principal,  many  of  these  optimistic 
transportation  schemes  were  forced  into  bankruptcy. 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     303 

The  Homestead  Act  contributed  its  full  share  to  the 
craze  for  investment.  The  pioneer  farmers,  eager  to  im- 
prove their  little  properties,  borrowed  from  Eastern 
capitaUsts,  mortgaging  their  lands  as  security.  They, 
no  less  than  the  railroad  companies,  committed  the  mis- 
take of  sinking  in  improvements  more  money  than  they 
could  make  good  out  of  surplus  products  for  years  to  come. 
The  faraway  creditor  was  fain  to  foreclose  the  mortgage 
and  take  the  land  in  lieu  of  pa)mient  —  an  asset  that  could 
not  readily  be  converted  into  cash  ;  thus  a  Kansas  mortgage 
became  the  synonym  for  a  losing  investment.  The  money 
resources  of  the  business  world  were  further  strained  by 
disastrous  fires  and  the  rebuilding  of  Chicago  (187 1)  and 
of  Boston  (1872). 

For  two  years  preceding  the  crisis,  money  was  scarce 
and  the  rates  of  interest  high,  notably  in  the  autumn, 
when  farm  products  were  being  moved  to  market.  In 
October,  1872,  there  was  a  deficiency  of  more  than  a  million 
dollars  in  the  bank  reserves  of  New  York  City.  In  Septem- 
ber of  1873,  financial  operations  were  paralyzed  by  a  series 
of  colossal  failures ;  the  leading  bankers  of  the  city  had 
made  unwarrantable  advances  to  various  railroad  enter- 
prises and  were  forced  to  close  their  doors  against  de- 
positors. The  Brooklyn  Trust  Company  was  heavily 
involved  with  the  New  Haven  and  Wniimantic  RaUroad ; 
the  Mercantile  Warehouse  and  Security  Company  with 
the  Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Texas;  Kenyon  Cox  and 
Company  with  the  Canada  Southern;  Fisk  and  Hatch 
with  the  Vanderbilt  Roads ;  Jay  Cooke  and  Company  with 
the  Northern  Pacific.  The  assignment  of  Jay  Cooke, 
the  leading  financier  of  that  day,  was  the  signal  for  a  general 
collapse.  More  than  five  thousand  failures  occurred  in 
the  panic  year  with  a  loss  of  $228,500,000,  and  the  number 
of  bankruptcies  steadily  increased,  till  in  1878  the  appaUing 
total  of  10,478  was  reached.  The  industrial  depression 
following  on  the  Wall  Street  panic  was  even  more  fatal 
to  productive  industries.  The  sum  of  the  failures  for 
the  country  at  large  aggregated  47,000  and  the  money 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 

653-657. 


Sherman,  I, 
488-506. 


Smalley, 
Ch.XX, 
XXI.  XXV. 
XXVI. 


Rhodes, 
Hist.of  U.S., 
VII,  Ch.  XL 


Mitchell, 

Organized 

Labor, 

ch.  vni. 

Powderly, 
Ch.  I. 


McNeill, 
Ch.V. 

Moody, 
Land  and 
Labor, 
Ch.  VII. 


Fite, 

ch.vn. 


304      Industrial  History  of  tJie  United  States 

loss,  $1,200,909,754,  wlule  some  three  million  workmen 
were  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  closing  down  of 
business  enterprises.  The  consequent  curtailment  in 
the  demand  for  goods  increased  the  difl&culty  of  the  situa- 
tion. Gradually,  however,  the  weight  of  depression  was 
thrown  off,  as  railroads  and  farms  began  to  return  some 
revenue,  mines  and  mills  were  reopened,  the  unemployed 
found  work  and  were  once  more  able  to  earn  and  spend, 
while  with  the  revival  of  the  market  for  goods,  manu- 
facturers took  heart  and  set  their  engines  in  motion. 

The  Labor  Movement.  —  The  engrossing  problems  en- 
tailed by  the  Civil  War  had  diverted  attention  from  the 
interests  of  free  labor.    The  workingmen  of  the  North 
threw  themselves  heart  and  soul  into  the  conflict  with  the 
slave  power  and  gladly  enUsted  for  service.     Th(;  drafting 
of  a  million  men  into  the  army  reduced  the  supply  of  labor 
to  the  point  where  there  was  work  at  good  wages  for  all 
remaining;   but  when  the  soldiers  returned  to  industrial 
hfe,  the  labor  market  was  glutted  and  difficulties  ensued. 
Wages  as  represented  in  paper  currency  had  risen  rapidly 
during  the  war,  and  the  abnormal  rates  were  maintained 
by   concerted   resistance   to   reduction.    Industrial   con- 
ditions were  more  favorable  to  organization  than  ever 
before,  for  the  capacity  of  factories  and  workshops  had 
been   multiplied,    and   larger   bodies   of   operatives  were 
massed  in  one  establishment.     Machinery  had  superseded 
hand  labor  in  well-nigh  every  field,  and  the  workmen, 
rendered  entirely  dependent  upon  capital  for  employment, 
organized  in  self-defense.     The  unprecedented  accumula- 
tion of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few  captains  of  industry 
served   to    further   emphasize    the    antagonism    between 
master  and  man,  so  that  the  necessity  for  collective  bar- 
gaining was  forced  home  upon  employees  of  every  class. 
The  movement  toward  union  on  a  national  scale  had 
been  apparent  before  the  close  of  the  war.    The  Brother- 
hood of  Locomotive  Engineers  was  organized   in  1863, 
the  Cigar  Makers  International  Union  in  1864,  and  the 
International  Union  of  Bricklayers  and  Masons  in  the  same 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     305 

year.  By  1866  some  thirty  or  forty  national  trade  or- 
ganizations had  been  set  on  foot.  The  principal  demands 
of  the  Workingmen's  party  —  the  aboUtion  of  chattel 
slavery,  free  distribution  of  public  lands,  and  a  ten-hour 
day  — were  accomplished  facts.  The  labor  leaders  of 
the  post  bellum  era  demanded  an  eight-hour  day,  pro- 
tective legislation  for  women  and  children  employed 
in  factories,  the  scientific  investigation  of  labor  prob- 
lems, etc. 

The  new  labor  movement  repudiated  both  the  great 
pohtical  parties  as  untrustworthy  and  aimed  to  aMate 
the  trade  unions  in  a  common  endeavor  to  better  working 
conditions,  not  for  their  own  members  merely,  but  for  the 
unskilled  workers  as  well.  A  National  Labor  Union  Con- 
vention was  called  at  Baltimore  m  1866  and  was  attended 
by  one  hundred  delegates,  representing  labor  organiza- 
tions in  all  the  Northern  and  in  three  border  states.  The 
conventions  held  at  Chicago  in  1867  and  at  New  York  in 
1868  were  even  more  widely  representative.  The  total 
membership  of  the  Workingmen's  party  was  estimated  in 
the  latter  year  at  six  hundred  and  forty-five  thousand.  This 
potent  constituency  sent  representatives  to  several  of  the 
state  legislatures,  and  was  even  able  to  bring  some  in- 
fluence to  bear  upon  the  national  government.  In  1869 
Congress  passed  a  bill  promising  an  eight-hour  day  for  all 
laborers  in  the  employ  of  the  United  States.  The  National 
Labor  Union  conventions  held  at  Boston  in  1870,  and  at 
Philadelphia  in  1871,  gave  evidence,  however,  of  faction 
and  waning  strength.  At  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  1872,  a 
candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States  was 
nominated,  but  this  proved  a  fatal  mistake.  The  attempt 
of  a  few  ambitious  leaders  to  use  the  organization  as  a 
political  machine  wrecked  the  undertaking. 

Better  success  attended  the  Labor  Reform  party,  which 
organized  in  Massachusetts  in  i86q,  fifteen  thousand 
strong.  In  that  same  year  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chus3tts  passsd  a  bill  providing  for  the  Stat^  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  the  first-fruits  of  the  demand  for  scientific 
inquiry  into  the  grievances  of  the  wage  earners. 


Commons 
and  Andrews, 
Labor 
Movement,  I. 


North, 
Factory 
Legislation 
in  New 
England. 


3o6      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 


II 


180 

\ 

1 

ll 

,  1 

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Ipn 

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140 

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120 

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fin 

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in 


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00 


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Wages  and  Prices  Prevailing  in  the  United  States,  1840-1900 


.Wages 


Prices 


Fite, 
Ch.  I. 


Rept. 
Industrial 
Commission, 
VI,  36-143, 
225-268. 

Adams, 
The  Granger 
Movement. 


Moody, 
Land  and 
Labor, 
Ch.  m. 


Base  Line  (1840-1891 )  for  wages  and  prices,  the  average  of  i860. 

Base  Line  I  1891-1900)  for  wages,  the  average  of  1891;  for  prices,  the  averngeof  1890- 

1892. 
Currency  Quotations  1860-1879  reduced  to  equivalent  in  gold. 

The  Farmers'  Movement.  —  During  the  latter  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  agricultural  population  had 
.Uttle  in  common  with  the  mechanics  and  operatives  of 
the  cities.  The  farmers  were  property  owners  and  tax- 
payers, and  naturally  conservative,  and  there  was  no  large 
class  of  agricultural  laborers  or  cash  tenants.  Every 
able-bodied  man  expected  to  acquire  land,  whether  by 
a  homestead  claim  or  by  the  slower  process  of  farming  on 
shares.  All  that  the  farmers  asked  was  a  fair  chance  to 
market  their  products.  Their  grievances  were  the  com- 
mission charges  of  the  middleman  who  forwarded  their 
grain  to  the  flour  mills  at  MinneapoUs,  their  cattle  to  the 
packing  houses  at  Chicago,  and  secured  the  Uon's  share 
of  the  profits  on  the  transaction.  The  railroads,  more- 
over, whose  advent  had  been  heralded  with  unalloyed 
satisfaction,  were  now  charged  with  imposing  exorbitant 
freight  rates  and  fixing  their  tariffs  on  the  principle  of 
charging  all  the  market  would  bear.  The  railroad  land, 
sold  in  extensive  tracts  to  the  highest  bidder,  came  into 
the  hands  of  capitaUsts,  who  introduced  machinery  and 


EUiott, 
American 
Farms, 
94-109. 


Peffer, 

The  Farmer's 

Side. 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     307 

large-scale  production  and  secured  special  favors  in  the 
freighting  of  their  products.  The  import  duties,  levied 
prunarily  in  the  interest  of  manufacturers,  added  to  the 
cost  of  groceries,  clothing,  implements,  and  building 
matenals,  while  curtaiUng  the  European  market  for  agri- 
cultural produce.  Only  the  wool  growers  got  a  com- 
pensating advantage  in  the  way  of  enhanced  prices.  Most 
of  the  Western  farmers  were  heavily  in  debt,  and  the 
contraction  of  the  currency,  with  the  consequent  fall  in 
pnces,  rendered  it  difficult  to  meet  obhgations  incurred 
during  the  inflation  period. 

In  1870  the  aggrieved  farmers  began  to  agitate  for  re- 
medial legislation.     The  Patrons  of  Industry  had  been 
organized  (1866)  to  render  farming  a  pleasanter  and  more 
remuneraUve  occupation.    They  had  begun  with  an  attempt 
to  reduce  expenses  by  cooperative  buying ;   they  now  un- 
dertook to  regulate  freight  rates,  and  so  to  reduce  the  cost 
of  marketing   their  products.     The   Granges   (so   called 
from  the  grange  or  local  organization)  were  strong  in  the 
upper  Mississippi  VaUey,  and  they  succeeded  in  inducin^r 
the  legislatures  of  lUinois,  Iowa,  Minnesota,   and  Wis^ 
consin  to  fix  maximum  rates  for  transportation  charges 
These  laws  were  bitterly  contested  by  the  railway  com- 
panies and  finally  repealed,  but  the  movement  was  not 
without  effect.     The  extent  to  which  a  raflroad   deter- 
mmes   the  industrial  development  of   the  region  served 
was  brought  to  pubHc  attention,  and,  since  the  granger 
laws  were  declared  constitutional  by  the  Supreme  Court 
a  precedent  for  state  control  was  clearly  established. 

The  Industrial  Transformation  of  the  South 

For  the  North,  the  Civil  War  had  inaugurated  a  new  era  Schwab 
of  material  expansion ;    for  Southern  industry,  it  meant  Ch  xn. 

'o^2.r^Z"'T'    ,T^,\^«-^-deracy,  being  the  scene  Gamer, 
ot  conflict,  suffered  incalculably  more  than  the  loyal  states    Reconstruc- 
Towns  were  burned,  bridges  wrecked,  railroad  tracks  torn  t^'^  ■    • 
up,  plantations  fallen  to  ruin.     Cotton,  the  only  marketabk  Ch^W^'^'' 


Martin,  His- 
tory of  the 
Grange 
Movement, 
Pt.  VI. 


Hadley, 
Railroad 
Transporta- 
tion, 129- 

139- 


Adams, 

Railroads, 

123-132. 

Detrick, 
Eflfects  of 
the  Granger 
Acts. 


I 

i 


Dunning, 
Reconstruc- 
tion. 

Rhodes 

VI. 

Ch.  32,  37 ; 

VII, 

Ch.  41,  42. 

Hammond, 
127. 


Du  Bois, 
Souls  of 
Black  Folk, 
Ch.  II. 

Gamer, 
Ch.  XVI. 

Washington, 
Story  of 
the  Negro, 

n,  Ch.  I. 


Fleming, 
Industrial 
System  in 
Alabama 
after  the 
CivU  War. 


Hammond, 
Ch.  IV. 


308      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

crop,  had  been  used  for  breastworks,  confiscated,  or  ren- 
dered unsalable  by  exposure.  The  wealthy  were  im- 
poverished by  the  repudiation  of  the  Confedeiate  currency 
and  Confederate  bonds;  the  poor  were  destitute.  One 
third  of  the  adult  males  of  the  white  population  had  fallen 
in  battle  or  returned  home  invaUded  and  incapacitated  for 
work,  and  the  proportion  of  breadwinners  was  seriously 
reduced.  Slavery,  the  labor  reliance  of  the  old  South, 
was  lost  beyond  recovery.  Land  had  depreciated  to  half 
its  ante-bellum  value,  and  the  capital  with  which  to  make 
good  the  devastations  of  war  was  not  to  be  foimd  south  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 

The  disasters  of  war  and  reconstruction  did  not  fall  on 
the  white  population  alone.  The  emancii)ated  blacks 
suffered  for  want  of  food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  and  thou- 
sands of  negroes  perished  of  hunger  and  disease.  There 
is  reason  to  beUeve  that  the  loss  of  life  was  four  times 
greater  for  blacks  than  for  whites.  The  Freedmen's 
Bureau  did  much  to  relieve  this  appalling  destitution  and 
to  set  the  freedmen  on  the  way  to  self-support;  but  it 
was  obhged  to  work  through  the  mihtary  organization. 
Army  officers,  however  well  intentioned,  are  hardly  fitted 
to  deal  with  a  compUcated  economic  situation. 

The  Labor  Problem.  —  The  twenty  years  following  the 
downfall  of  the  Confederacy  witnessed  a  change  in  the 
industrial  order  of  the  South  that  may  fairly  be  termed  an 
agricultural  revolution.  With  emancipation,  three  million 
laborers  passed  immediately  from  a  state  of  dependence 
and  rigid  surveillance  to  absolute  freedom.  The  economic 
tie  between  master  and  slave  was  suddenly  broken ;  the  one 
was  forced  to  seek  laborers,  and  the  other  employment, 
in  the  open  market.  Both  were  unaccustomed  to  the  wage 
relation,  and  both  found  difficulty  in  estimating  in  terms 
of  money  the  services  that  had  hitherto  been  rendered  for 
mere  subsistence.  The  freedmen,  eager  to  realize  the 
blessings  of  liberty  and  esteeming  labor  a  badge  of  slavery, 
wandered  about  the  country  in  search  of  pleasure,  and 
rapidly  gravitated  to  the  towns.    They  worked  only  under 


Civil   War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     309 

the  compulsion  of  absolute  want,  and  pay  day  was  usually 
followed  by  a  week  of  idleness. 

The  planters,  handicapped  by  the  losses  of  the  war  and 
unable  to  command  ready  money,  advanced  rations  to 
their  laborers  but  postponed  the  payment  of  wages  till  the 
crops  were  in.  Even  then  they  sometimes  failed  to  make 
over  the  money  due,  and  the  negroes  grew  suspicious. 
The  unsatisfactoriness  of  the  hiring  system  is  evidenced 
by  the  decline  in  wage  rates  from  $137.50  per  year  in  i860 
to  $129  in  1867,  and  $100  in  1868.  The  plantation 
system,  profitable  only  with  gangs  of  cheap  laborers 
subject  to  absolute  control,  broke  down  under  these 
conditions. 

The  attempt  to  grow  cotton  with  borrowed  capital  and 
wage  labor  having  failed,  landowners  began  to  lease  estates 
on  shares.  Tracts  of  from  forty  to  eighty  acres  were 
rented  to  the  more  reUable  negroes  on  varying  conditions. 
If  the  landlord  furnished  seed,  mule,  plow,  and  rations,  he 
was  entitled  to  two  thirds  the  crop.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  renter  supplied  food,  he  kept  half  the  crop.  If  he 
fed  himself  and  owned  stock  and  implements,  he  kept  two 
thirds  the  cotton  grown.  A  negro  who  had  acquired  a 
reputation  for  intelligence  and  industry  might  secure 
land  at  a  stipulated  rental  in  cotton  or  money  and  thus  be 
free  from  supervision.  Planters  were  ready  to  sell  on 
easy  terms  considerable  portions  of  their  heavily  encum- 
bered estates,  and  in  a  series  of  good  seasons,  with  fair 
prices,  such  a  tenant  might  clear  enough  to  buy  the 
land.  By  1874,  within  ten  years  after  emancipation,  the 
negro  farmers  of  Georgia  had  thus  acquired  338,769 
acres. 

The  poor  whites,  too,  made  good  use  of  this  chance  to 
get  possession  of  land  and  so  secure  opportunity  for  self- 
support.  The  necessities  of  planters  combined  with  the 
ambition  of  landless  laborers  to  break  up  the  great  estates, 
and  the  old-time  plantations  crumbled  away  into  little 
farms.  The  tendency  is  evident  in  the  statistics  of  farm 
acreage. 


Du  Bois, 
The  Negro 
Farmer, 
79-8x. 


Kelsey, 
Evolution 
of  the  Negro 
Laborer. 


Washington, 
Story  of  the 
Negro,  II, 
Ch.  II. 

Du  Bois, 
Negro  Land- 
holder of 
Georgia,  665. 


Banks,  Land 
Tenure  in 
Georgia, 
30-77. 


3IO      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Average  Area  in  Acres  of  Southern  Holdings 


Year 


i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


All 

Southern 

States 


3354 
214.2 

1534 
139-7 
138.2 


South 
Atlantic 


352.8 
241. 1 

1574 
1.53-6 
108.4 


South 
Centrai. 


321.3 
194.4 
150.6 
144.0 

1554 


The  reconstruction  of  agriculture  was  a  slow  and  diffi- 
cult process,  but  pluck  and  patience  finally  succeeded  in 
rendering  the  South  more  productive  under  free  than  under 
slave  labor.  Dead  lands  were  reclaimed  by  use  of  fer- 
tilizers; waste  lands  were  brought  under  cultivation; 
machinery  and  scientific  methods  were  brought  to  bear 
in  the  growing  of  cotton,  sugar,  and  rice.  Evidence  of  the 
losses  of  the  war  period  and  the  gains  of  the  subsequent 
decades  may  be  gathered  from  farm  statistics. 

Crop  Statistics 


Year 

Cotton 

Sugar 

Rice 

Bales 

Tons 

Lbs. 

i860 

5,740,000 

193,040 

187,167,000 

1870 

3,000,000 

45,000 

73,635,000 

1880 

5,750,000 

112,000 

110,131,000 

1890 

7,450,000 

136,000 

128,591,000 

1900 

9,500,000 

248,000 

283,773,000 

Average  Value  of  Machinery  and  Implements  per  Acre 


Year 

United 

North 

North 

South 

South 

States 

Atlantic 

CtNTRAL 

Atlantic 

Central 

Western 

i860    .      .      . 

$.60 

$1.21 

$.67 

$-32 

I52 

$•33 

1870    .      .      . 

.66 

1-43 

.89 

.22 

•30 

.48 

1880    .      .      . 

.76 

1.58 

1. 00 

-30 

•35 

.60 

1890    .     .      , 

-79 

1.86 

.98 

•36 

•37 

.64 

1900    .      .      . 

.90 

2.34 

I-I5 

•51 

•49 

•56 

Hauling  Fertilizer  on  to  Dead  Lands,  Calhoun,  Alabama 


Threshing  Wheat  with  Traction  Engine,  North  Dakota 


I 


Civil  War:  Economic  Causes  and  Results     311 


Development  of  Cotton  Manufactures.  —  The  South's 
advantages  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods  had  long 

been  realized.  There 
was  water  power  in 
abundance,  free  all 
the  year  round,  the 
raw  material  was  to 
be  had  direct  from 
the  cotton  gin,  with 
no  commissions 
or  transportation 
charges  added,  and 
labor  was  at  hand  in- 
telligent and  willing. 
The  long-dormant  en- 
ergies of  the  poor 
whites  were  utilized 
at  last,  capital  was 
secured  from  the 
North  and  from 
abroad,  and  the 
South  set  upon  the 
textile  industry  in  good  earnest.  All  along  the  "  fall  line  " 
cotton  mills  were  built  with  phenomenal  rapidity,  and  the 
mountain  people  were  gathered  into  factory  villages.  It 
was  cheap  labor,  for  the  standard  of  living  was  not  high, 
and  fuel,  food,  and  shelter  cost  little.  Moreover,  there  was 
no  prejudice  against  the  employment  of  women  and  chil- 
dren and  no  demand  for  shorter  hours  or  prohibition  of 
night  work.  Little  could  be  accomplished  in  the  war 
decade,  but  between  1870  and  1880  great  strides  were 
made.  South  Carolina  doubled  the  capacity  of  her  mills 
and  the  value  of  her  output,  while  North  Carolina  and 
Georgia  were  not  far  behind.  By  1880  sixteen  thousand 
people  found  employment  in  the  Southern  cotton  mills, 
and  their  product  was  nearly  one  fourth  that  of  New  Eng- 
land. It  became  apparent  that  the  white  laborers  had  prof- 
ited more  than  the  blacks  from  the  edict  of  emancipation. 


Mass.  Labor 
Bulletin, 
No.  10. 


The  Fall  Line 


Young, 

American 

Cotton 

Industry, 

54-99- 


U.S.  Census, 
igoo,  IX, 
54-57- 


312      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Southern  Cotton  Factories 


i 


Stubbs, 

Sugar, 

79-101. 

Houston, 
Cotton, 
I 13-128. 

Shelf  er. 

Tobacco, 

129-144. 


Year 

Spindles 

Employees 

Vali  E  of  Product 

i860 

298,551 

10,152 

$8,460,337 

1870 

327,871 

10,173 

11,372,186 

1880 

542,048 

16,741 

16,356,598 

1890 

1,554,000 

36,415 

41,513,711 

IQCXJ 

4,299,988 

97,559 

95,.X32,059 

Other  latent  resources  were  developed  by  Northern 
capital  and  Northern  entrepreneurs.  The  coal  and  iron 
deposits  of  the  Appalachian  Range  were  exploited  with 
modern  machinery;  the  phosphate  beds  of  Florida  and 
South  Carolina  and  Tennessee  were  opened  up,  and  the 
preparation  of  fertihzers  became  an  important  industry; 
the  sandy  levels  of  Florida  were  covered  with  fruit  orchards ; 
the  bayou  lands  of  Louisiana  and  Texas  were  drained  and 
irrigated  and  converted  into  rice  fields  more  profitable 
than  those  of  South  Carolina. 


CHAPTER  X 
CONTEMPORARY  PROBLEMS 

The  Protective  Policy 

Notwithstanding  reductions  in  excise  and  customs 
duties  made  in  the  decade  following  the  Civil  War,  the 
national  revenues  increased  from  year  to  year,  until  in 
1883  the  Treasury  reported  a  surplus  of  $145,600,000. 
This  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the  growth  in  wealth 
and  population  and  in  the  consequent  demand  for  the 
commodities  subject  to  tax.  The  receipts  from  customs 
duties  on  sugar,  silks,  woolens,  and  iron  manufactures 
were  rapidly  augmenting,  as  also  from  the  excises  on 
liquors  and  manufactured  tobacco. 

The  surplus  revenue  could  not  be  applied  to  the  re- 
demption of  the  outstanding  bills  of  credit  for  fear  of 
giving  umbrage  to  the  Greenback  party,  nor  to  the  ex- 
tinction of  the  government  bonds  without  curtailing  the 
circulation  of  the  national  banks.  Financiers  recom- 
mended the  further  reduction  of  Federal  taxes,  and  this 
was  seriously  undertaken  in  1883.  The  more  obnoxious 
of  the  remaining  excise  taxes  were  repealed,  e.g.  those  on 
matches,  patent  medicines,  and  perfumeries,  savings-bank 
deposits  and  bank  checks,  and  the  charges  on  chewing 
and  smoking  tobacco  were  reduced  by  half.  This  measure 
relieved  these  several  industries  of  a  considerable  burden 
and  met  with  general  approval;  not  so  the  attempt  to 
reduce  the  customs  duties.  A  Tariff  Commission,  ap- 
pointed in  1882,  submitted  an  elaborate  report  recom- 
mending general  reductions  of  20  and  25  per  cent  on  raw 
materials   and   articles  of  necessary  consumption.    The 

313 


Dewey, 
Financial 
Hist,  of 
U.S., 
415-429. 

Stanwood, 
II,  Ch.  XV. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  the  U.S., 
230-250. 

Rept.  of  the 
Tariff  Com- 
mission, 
1882, 
1681-1710. 


Sherman,  II, 
849-854- 


Dewey, 

National 

Problems, 

Ch.  IV. 

1     1 

Rept.  of 

Tariff  Com., 

1     ,                1882,  339- 

^              344,431-432, 

;     1                S4Q,  603-612, 

'  i               763-764,  838, 

872,  887-889, 

1053-1054, 

IS33,  1534, 

1 686-1 688, 

2035-2036, 

!             2313-2333. 

,' 

1  1 

1 

( 

1 

■ 

1 

Rept.  Mass. 

Bureau  of 

Labor  Stat., 

1884. 

i 

1                         Noyes, 

Forty  Years 
of  Amer. 
Finance, 
92-103. 


314      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Republican  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives  re- 
fused to  inaugurate  action,  and  the  measure  was  finally 
introduced  in  the  Senate,  as  an  amendment  to  the  In- 
ternal Revenue  Bill  sent  up  from  the  House.     The  amend- 
ment was  only  accepted  by  the  latter  body  after  consider- 
able modification  in  the  interest  of  protection  had  been 
admitted.    The  duties  on  coarse   woolens  and  cottons 
were  reduced,  since  these  manufactures  were  not  menaced 
by  foreign  competition,  but  charges  on  the  finer  grades 
were  actually  raised.    Iron  and  steel  manufactures  were 
taxed  not  quite  so  heavily  as  in  1875,  but  the  duty  on  pig 
iron   was   reduced   in   proportion.     The   argument    that 
American  laborers  must  be  protected  against  the  "  pauper 
labor"  of  Europe  by  high  import  duties  on  foreign  prod- 
ucts had  been  brought  before  the   Commission  by  em- 
ployers as  well  as  by  representatives  of  trade  unions. 
American  workmen  were  receiving  on  an    average   one 
and  one  half  times  the  English  wage,  twice  that  paid  in 
Belgium,  three  times  the  rate  customary  in  France,  Italy, 
Germany,  and  Spain.     The  counter  argument  that  Ameri- 
can prices  raised  the  cost  of  Uving  to  two  and  three  times 
the  European  level,  and  that  the  enhanced  profits  accru- 
ing from  these  prices  were  not   necessarily  apjilied  to 
wages,  did  not  have  much  influence  with  this  Congress. 
The  interest  of  the  agricultural  sections  was  steadily  kept 
in  mind,  the  import  duties  on  l^eef,  pork,  lard,  cheese, 
butter,  wheat,  corn,  and  oats  being  maintained.     Since 
these  commodities  were  not  imported  except  from  Nova 
Scotia  and  Canada,  the  New  England  farmers  alone  realized 
any  benefit  from  such  duties,  while  the  wool  growers  of 
the  Middle  West  were  outraged  by  a  repeal  of  the  ad 
valorem  duties  on  imported  wools. 

Crisis  of  1884.  —  The  financial  panic  of  1884  was  at- 
tributed to  this  very  moderate  abatement  in  the  protec- 
tion accorded  to  manufactures,  but  it  would  be  difficult 
to  prove  that  factory  or  mining  interests  were  seriously 
affected.  The  crisis  originated  in  Wall  Street  in  the 
failure  of  four  large  banking  firms.    The  collapse  of  the 


Contemporary  Problems 


315 


Second  National,  the  Marine,  and  the  Metropolitan  banks 
within  one  disastrous  week  was  due  to  no  general  depres- 
sion, but  to  dishonest  management  and  unwarranted  specu- 
lation. The  unusual  stringency  in  the  money  market  was 
occasioned  by  the  displacement  of  gold  by  the  newly 
coined  silver,  and  by  the  sinking  of  vast  sums  in  Western 
farms  and  railroads.  The  transcontinental  roads  had  not 
yet  attained  a  paying  basis,  and  the  interests  of  agricul- 
ture were  threatened  by  falling  prices.  Import  duties 
brought  no  benefit  to  the  farmers  of  the  interior,  since 
their  domestic  market  was  overstocked  with  produce. 
The  wheat  crop  of  1884  was  the  largest  that  had  ever 
been  harvested,  and  the  price  fell  to  sixty-four  cents  a 
bushel,  half  that  obtained  three  years  before.  This  price 
did  not  cover  the  cost  of  production,  and  many  farmers 
were  ruined.  The  inability  of  the  agriculturists  to  meet 
their  obligations  to  Eastern  capitalists  and  to  purchase 
the  products  of  Eastern  mills  and  workshops,  extended 
and  prolonged  the  industrial  depression,  and  the  glut  of 
the  market  became  general. 

The  McKinley  Act.  —  When  the  Democrats  came  into 
control  of  the  national  government  (1884),  several  half- 
hearted attempts  at  tariff  revision  were  made  {e.g.  Morri- 
son of  Illinois  urged  a  twenty  per  cent  horizontal  reduc- 
tion and  free  raw  materials) ;  but  the  party  as  a  whole  was 
not  committed  to  the  policy  of  revision.  The  issue  was 
definitely  formulated  by  President  Cleveland  in  his  annual 
message  of  December,  1887,  when  the  excess  revenue  had 
mounted  to  more  than  $100,000,000  a  year,  and  the  taxes 
must  evidently  be  abated.  The  President  recommended 
that  customs  duties  be  reduced,  not  arbitrarily  and  by  a 
sweeping  horizontal  cut,  but  with  due  regard  to  the  busi- 
ness interests  involved.  Established  industries  should  not 
suddenly  be  deprived  of  advantages  on  which  calculations 
of  success  had  been  based.  The  welfare  of  mechanics  and 
operatives  must  be  kept  in  mind,  hence  tariff  revision 
should  aim  to  reduce  the  cost  of  living  without  curtailing 
the  opportunity  for  employment  or  forcing  any  reduction 


Sherman, 
II,  879-881. 

Finance 
Rept.,  1884, 

157-159. 


Wright, 
Industrial 
Depressions, 
65-90. 


U.  S.  Statisti- 
cal Abstract, 
1904,  376. 


Conant, 
Banks  of  • 
Issue,  61-62. 


Dewey, 

National 
Problems, 
Ch.  XI. 

President's 

Message, 

Cong. 

Record, 

XEX,  Pt.  I, 

9-11. 


ii 


II 


Noyes, 
Forty  Years 
of  American 
Finance, 
127-138. 


Taussig, 
Tariff  ffist. 
of  U.S., 
251-283. 


Blaine, 

Reciprocity 

Letter. 

51st  Cong., 
I  St  Session, 
Sen.  Ex. 
Doc.  158. 


<ill 


316      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  wages.  The  interests  of  farmers  and  farm  laborers  were 
even  more  weighty,  since  nearly  half  the  total  population 
was  represented  in  this  class.  Unprotected  by  import 
duties,  the  prices  of  most  farm  products  were  conditioned 
on  the  foreign  market,  and  this  must  not  be  jeopardized 
by  discriminating  tariff  schedules. 

The  surplus  and  the  tariff  were  the  main  questions  at 
issue  in  the  campaign  of  1888.     The  result  of  that  election 
was  an  unprecedented  victory  for  the  Republican  party. 
Accounts  may  be  balanced  as  effectually  by  increasing 
expenditure  as  by  reducing  revenue.     The  former  exjjedient 
would  involve  the  party  in  no  embarrassing  antagonisms, 
while    it    afforded    opportunity    to    strengthen    poUtical 
allegiance  ;  hence  Congress  extended  the  pension  list  to 
the  point  where   the   annual   appropriation  on  this  ac- 
count would  speedily  exhaust  the  surplus.     The  excess 
revenues  thus  disposed  of,  the  c^uestion  of  tariff  revision 
was  taken  up.     In  May,  1890,  the  Committee  on  Ways 
and  Means  (William  McKinley,  chairman)  reported  a  bill 
proposing  a  general  increase  of  duties.     The  measure  was 
adopted  in  House  and  Senate  by  a  strict  party  vote,  only 
three  Republicans,  representatives  of  the  farming  interest, 
voting  against  the  bill.     Higher  duties  were  imposed  on 
--the  finer  grades  of  cottons  and  woolens,  on  iron  and  steel, 
glass  manufactures,  etc.,  but  the  rates  on  raw  materials 
were  not  reduced.     A  serious  effort  was  made  to  extend  the 
benefits  of  protection  to  farm  products,  the  war  duties  on 
wool  were  restored,  while  heavy  imposts  were  laid  on 
eggs,  potatoes,  beans,  barley,  wheat,  corn,  tobacco,  flax, 
and  hemp.     The  tobacco  growers  realized  some  advantage 
from  the  exclusion  of  the  high-grade  leaf  from  Cuba  and 
Sumatra,  but  the  grain  growers  were  unaffected,  since  no 
cereals  were  imported.     James  G.  Blaine  asserted,  and 
truly :    "  There  is  not  a  section  or  line  m  the  entire  bill 
that  will  open  the  market  for  another  bushel  of  wheat  or 
another  barrel  of  pork."    There  was,  on  the  other  hand, 
reason  to  fear  that  our  exclusive  policy  might  seriously 
curtail  the  foreign  market  for  our  agricultural  produce. 


Contemporary  Problems 


1^7 


In  the  hope  of  inducing  foreign  nations  to  abate  their 
retaUatory  tariffs,  Blaine  urged  upon  Congress  and  finally 
secured  the  so-called  reciprocity  clause  of  the  McKinley 
Act.  The  President  of  the  United  States  was  empowered 
to  restore  former  import  duties  on  sugar,  molasses,  tea, 
coffee,  and  hides  in  case  of  any  country  whose  import 
charges  on  our  produce  (agricultural  or  otherwise)  he 
might  deem  to  be  unreasonable  and  unjust.  The  im- 
mediate result  of  this  threat  was  the  negotiation  of  trade 
agreements  with  Brazil,  San  Domingo,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico, 
Guatemala,  Salvador,  British  Guiana,  Nicaragua,  and 
Honduras.  Of  European  nations,  Austria-Hungary  and 
the  German  Empire  alone  accepted  our  offer  of  reciprocal 
comimercial  advantage. 

The  enactment  was  notable  for  the  appearance  of  cer- 
tain business  combinations  as  influential  factors  in  the 
determination  of  duties.  The  binding  twine  trust,  for 
example,  requested  a  duty  of  two  and  a  half  cents  a  pound 
on  its  product.  The  tax  was  protested  by  the  farmers  of 
Kansas  and  the  West,  who  were  using  great  quantities  of 
twine  for  binding  sheaves,  and  their  representatives  re- 
fused to  vote  for  the  bill  unless  binding  twine  was  placed 
on  the  free  list.  This  conflict  of  interest  was  compromised, 
and  the  duty  was  fixed  at  seven  tenths  of  a  cent  per  pound. 
The  American  Sugar  Refining  Company  urged  that  a 
differential  of  profit  be  secured  their  industry  by  increas- 
ing the  duty  on  refined  sugar  or  by  the  repeal  of  the  tax 
on  their  raw  material.  The  former  device  was  protested 
by  consumers,  since  sugar  had  become  a  necessity,  even 
to  the  poor ;  the  latter  was  protested  by  the  cane  planters 
of  Louisiana  and  the  beet  farmers  of  the  Middle  West. 
The  duty  on  refined  sugar  was  reduced  from  three  and  a 
half  cents  to  one  half  a  cent  a  pound,  while  raw  sugar  was 
admitted  free;  but  full  compensation  was  accorded  do- 
mestic producers  in  a  bounty  of  two  cents  a  pound  on  all 
sugars  grown  in  the  United  States.  The  only  loser  in  this 
bargain  was  the  government.  Since  the  bounty  charge 
amounted  to  $6,000,000  per  year  and  the  remission  of  the 


Ford, 

Reciprocity 
under  the 
Tariff  Act  of 
1890. 


Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Reciprocity, 
Ch.  VI,  vu. 

Griffin,  List 
of  References 
on  Reci- 
procity, 


Census,  iqoo, 
VI,  452-460 ; 
IX,  545-555- 


L. 


Aldrich, 
Rept. 
Wholesale 
Wages, 
Prices,  and 
Transporta- 
tion, I,  8-14. 


Dewey, 

455-458. 


Sherman, 
II,  Ch.  LXV. 

Stanwood, 
Il.Ch.  XVII. 

Laughlin 
and  Willis, 

Ch.  vm. 


Dewey, 

National 
Problems, 
Ch.  XVII. 


318      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

duty  cut  down  the  annual  revenue  by  $55,000,000,  the 
concession  to  the  sugar  trust  cost  the  Treasury  dear. 
The  annual  surplus  was  speedily  converted  into  a  deficit. 

The  McKinley  Act  proved  highly  unpopular,  for  prices 
and  cost  of  Uving  increased  with  little  compensating  ad- 
vance in  wages.  The  farmers  experienced  no  improve- 
ment in  the  market  for  their  products.  Wheat  fell  from 
eighty-four  cents  a  bushel  in  1890  to  forty-nine  cents  in 
1894,  and  prices  of  corn,  oats,  rye,  and  barley  decUned 
in  the  same  proportion.  The  woolen  manufacturers  com- 
plained that  the  protection  given  them  did  not  offset  the 
enhanced  cost  of  their  raw  materials. 

The  Wilson-Gorman  Act.  —  The  tariff  was  the  dominant 
issue  in  the  campaign  of  1892,  when  the  Democrats  won 
the  election  and  Cleveland  was  returned  to  the  presidency. 
He  immediately  intrusted  Wilson  of  West  Virginia  with 
the  task  of  devising  a  tariff  schedule  that  should  embody 
the  Democratic  doctrine  of  free  raw  materials  and  moder- 
ate ad  valorem  duties  on  finished  products.     The  Wilson 
Bill  placed  wool,  iron,  steel,  coal,  and  lumber,  together 
with  sugar,  on  the  free  list,  and  proposed  a  proportionate 
reduction  in  the  duties  on  the  corresponding  manufactures. 
The  necessary  revenue  was  to  be  derived  from  duties  on 
tobacco,  spirits,  playing  cards,  etc.,  but  lest  these  taxes 
should  prove  insufficient,  a  tax  of  tw^o  per  cent  on  incomes 
above  $4000  per  year  was  added  by  amendment.     This 
revival  of  an  emergency  war  measure  was  opposed  in  the 
moneyed  sections  of  the  country,  but  enthusiastically  sup- 
ported by  the  PopuUsts  of  the  South  and  West.     The 
Wilson  Bill  passed  the  House  with  no  further  amendment ; 
but  in  the  Senate,  where  the  Republicans  had  control,  it 
met  with  serious  resistance.     With  the  aid  of   Senator 
Gorman,  amendments  were  adopted  imposing  duties  on 
low-grade  sugars,  on  wool,  coal,  iron,  and  other  raw  ma- 
terials, together  with  compensating  rates  on  refined  sugar, 
woolens,  and  a  long  Ust  of  manufactured  articles.    When 
the  mutilated  bill  was  returned  to  the  House,  that  body 
refused  to  concur.     The  questions  in  dispute  were  referred 


wT^Tj 

^  ¥^^  <• 

Sugar  Plantation  in  Hawaian  Islands 
Japanese  laborers. 


II 


I 


Contemporary  Problems 


319 


to  a  conference  with  slight  avail,  and  the  bill  was  in  danger 
of  going  by  default,  when  the  Democratic  leaders  of  the 
House  agreed  to  accept  the  Senate  amendments,  except 
the  wool  tax,  in  the  hope  of  later  enlarging  the  free  list  by 
separate  enactments.  Thus  the  Wilson-Gorman  Bill  be- 
came law  though  disapproved  by  both  parties  and  meeting 
the  needs  of  no  interest,  public  or  private.  The  range  of 
duties  was  reduced  from  the  McKinley  Act  average  of 
49.5  per  cent  to  an  average  rate  of  39.94  per  cent. 

The  Dingley  Act.  —  The  Republicans  won  the  election 
of  1896  on  the  currency  issue,  but  President  McKinley 
regarded  the  victory  as  an  indorsement  of  his  protective 
policy.  Dingley  of  Maine  v/as  commissioned  to  prepare 
the  tariff  bill  that  was  submitted  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives in  an  extra  session  convened  immediately  after 
the  inauguration.  The  bill  was  rushed  through  the 
House  in  the  form  proposed  by  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means,  but  in  the  Senate,  where  parties  were  more 
equally  divided,  it  met  with  stubborn  resistance.  The 
Finance  Committee,  to  which  the  measure  was  referred 
after  the  initial  debate,  was  made  up  of  four  Republicans, 
four  Democrats,  and  one  Populist,  and  thus  the  balance 
of  power  rested  with  the  latter.  Senator  Jones  of  Nevada. 
He  succeeded  in  incorporating  in  the  reported  bill  a  series 
of  amendments  in  the  interest  of  the  farmers,  ranchers, 
and  lumbermen  of  the  Far  West.  A  duty  of  one  cent  a 
pound  on  citrous  fruits  was  introduced  in  response  to  the 
demands  of  the  orange  growers  of  California,  one  and  one 
half  cents  a  pound  on  hides  was  offered  as  a  concession 
to  the  cattlemen  of  the  plains,  whUe  a  protective  duty 
on  carpet  wools  was  admitted  in  the  interest  of  the  sheep 
ranches  of  Montana  and  Idaho.  The  duty  on  lumber 
($2  per  thousand  feet)  served  to  protect  our  lumber  mer- 
chants against  competition  from  Canada.  The  bill,  when 
finally  passed,  accorded  protective  duties  to  every  business 
interest  that  could  profit  by  them,  at  rates  higher  than 
had  been  adopted  in  any  previous  tariff.  The  average 
range  of  duties  was  57  per  cent. 


Tausag, 
Tari£F  Act 
of  1897. 

Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Ch.  DC. 


Tariff 

Hearings, 

1897- 


II 


l( 


Moody, 
Truth  about 
the  Trusts, 
66. 


Patten, 
Economic 
Basis  of 
Protection. 


Bulletins, 
Bureau  of 
Labor, 
Nos.  SI,  53. 


320      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Dingley  Tariff  met  with  serious  criticism  on  the 
ground  that  it  served  to  promote  industrial  combinations 
It  was  asserted  that  the  representatives  of  various  trusts 
brought  the  influence  of  vast  wealth  to  bear  upon  the 
congressional  deliberations.    The  tin  plate  combination, 
for  example,  secured  a  renewal  of  the  rates  of  the  McKinley 
Act,  although  the  tin  mines  in  whose  interest  the  duties 
were  originally  proposed  had  failed  to  materialize     The 
sugar  trust  extorted  a  differential  of  three  fourths  of  a 
cent  a  pound,  two  and  one  half  rimes  that  allowed  under 
the  Wilson  Tariff.     Even  the  protection  intended  to  ad- 
vantage the  farmers  and  other  raw  material  producers 
accrued    to    the    centralized    industries.     The    enhanced 
value  of  American  hides  enriched  the  beef  packers,  since 
tannmg  had  become  a  by-industry  of  the  slaughterhouse, 
while  the  duty  on  lumber  insured  monopoly  of  the  domesric 
market    to  great   rimber  companies    and  hastened   the 
rmnous  exploitadon  of  our  forest  lands.     The  conflict  of  in- 
terest between  manufacturer  and  producer  of  raw  material 
mduced    further    criricism.     The    woolen  manufacturers 
protested  the  high  dudes  on  wool,  the  shoe  manufacturers 
opposed  the  tax  on  hides,  the  paper  manufacturers  de- 
manded   free    bleaching    powder;     but    these    interests 
were  usually  able  to  make   good   the  enhanced  cost  of 
raw  materials  by  advancing  the  selling  price  of  their  prod- 
ucts.    Certain  great  business  combinadons,  such  as  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,  realized  enormous  profits 
from  the  protected  market.     The  output  of  iron  and  steel 
developed  to  phenomenal  propordons  under  the  Dingley 
Tariff,     ffigh  prices  on  domestic  sales  enabbd  our  manu- 
facturers  to   export   agricultural   implements,    structural 
iron,  steel  rails,  etc.,  to  foreign  markets,  and  there  to 
underbid  their  Enghsh  and  German  compedtors.     But  the 
prosperity   of   the   manufacturer   was  promoted   at   the 
expense  of  the  consumer.    The  prices  of  all  the  essentials 
that  enter  into  the  cost  of  living  — food,  clothing,  fuel, 
building  matenals,  house  furnishings,  etc.  -  have  risen 
steadily  since  1897.    The  total  rise  m  prices  amounted,  in 


Conteynporary  Problems 


321 


1908,  to  an  addition  of  forty-three  per  cent  to  the  prices 
prevailing  in  1896.     Hamilton's  assumpdon  that  manufac- 
tures once  established,  domesdc  competition  would  reduce 
prices  to  the  cost  of  producdon  held  good  in  an  epoch 
when   industrial    n^onopolies   were    unknown;    but    the 
business  combinadons  of  to-day,  having  estabhshed  control 
of  the  domestic  market,  fix  prices  without  regard  to  cost. 
The  enactment  of  the  Dingley  Tariff  coincided  with  a 
revival  of  prosperity  in  which  all  the  leading  industries 
shared.     A  failure  of  the  foreign  wheat  crops  in  1896  and 
1897  created  a  demand  for  American  grain  that  brought 
up  the  price  from  53  cents  a  bushel  in  August,  1S96,  to  $1 
a  bushel  in  August,  1897.     A  phenomenal  crop  in  the  latter 
year  brought  $500,000,000  into  the  hands  of  the  producers 
This  meant   the   turning  of   the   dde.     The   farmers   of 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  began  to  pay  off  their  mortgages, 
and  the  enhanced  purchasing  power  of  the  agricultural 
sections  was  felt  in  renewed  demand  for  a  great  variety  of 
manufactured  goods.     The  factories  that  had  shut  down 
or  curtailed  output  during  the  period  of  depression  began 
to  run  on  full  time,  workshops  and  rolling  mills  were  re- 
opened,  operatives    and   ardsans   found   ready   employ- 
ment at  good  wages,  and  the  freight  capacity  of  the  rail- 
roads was  taxed  to  transport  the  augmendng  volume  of 
traffic.     Iniportationfell   off   in   the   years   immediately 
following  the  Dingley  Tariff,  but  foreign  merchants  rapidly 
recovered  their  American  market  until  the  importations 
of  1903   passed  the  billion  dollar  mark.     Export  figures 
reached  $1,032,007,600  in  1897,  and  the  volum.  steadily 
mcreased  from  year  to  year.     Of  the  total  exports  in  1008 
24.5  per  cent  were  foodstuffs,  46.86  per  cent  raw  materials 
of  manufacture  and  27.77  per  cent  manufactured  goods. 

J  ??if  "^.^^"^  ^^^  '"^  ^^'"^  ^^^^^^^  yea^s  and  thereby 
attained  the  distmcdon  of  being  the  longest-lived  tariff  in 
our  financial  history.  During  this  period  changes  Z 
methods  of  production,  in  natural  resources,  and  in  market 
conditions  had  so  far  altered  the  status  o  the  pro^ectd 
mdustnes  that  some  revision  of  the  schedules  seamed  iS 


r 


Willis, 
Tariff  of 
1909. 


322      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

evitable.    Improvements  in  machinery  and  in  workshop 
organization  had  brought  the  cost  of  manufacture  to  the 
European  level,  but  the  cost  of  certain  raw  materials  such 
as  wool,  hides,  and  fuel  was  rising,  the  market  for  many 
of  the  necessaries  of  Ufe  was  controlled  by  combinations 
among  the  producers,  while  the  consumers,  the  bulk  of 
the  population,  had  grown  restless  under  the  ever  increas- 
mg  burden  imposed  by  advancing  prices.    The  first  formal 
protest  against  the  Dingley  Tariff  was  enunciated  at  a 
conference  of  representative  men  from  the  MidcUe  West 
called  at  Denver  in  1905.     It  was  therein  asserted  that 
the  Dingley  rates  had  induced  retaUatory  legislation  on 
the  part  of  Germany,  France,  and  Canada,  that  threatened 
the  serious  curtailment  of  the   markets  on  which    the 
Western  producers  depended  for  the  disposal  of  their  sur- 
plus  crops.     Revolt   against   the   estabUshed   order   was 
carried  into  Congress  by  representatives  from  Indiana, 
Iowa,  Wisconsin,  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Minnesota,  and 
their  words  were  eagerly  afl&rmed  by  the  non-protected 
classes  the  country  over.    In  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1908,  both  the  Republican  and   Democratic  i)arty  plat- 
forms declared  for  reshaping  of  the  Dingley  schedules. 

The  Payne-Aldrich  Act.  —  The  party  in  power  favored 
a  "  revision  of  the  tariff  by  a  special  session  of  Congress 
immediately  following  the  inauguration  of  the  next  presi- 
dent," and  asserted  that  "  the  true  principle  of  protection 
is  best  mamtamed  by  the  imposition  of  such  duties  as  will 
equal  the  difference  between  the  cost  of  production  at 
home  and  abroad,  together  with  a  reasonable  profit  to 
American  industries."     The  Democratic  platform  favored 
immediate  revision  of  the  tariff  by  the  reduction  of  im- 
port  duties,    notably  on  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  pro- 
posed that "  articles  entering  into  competition  with  trust- 
controlled  products  should  be  placed  upon  the  free  list." 
The  campaign  was  an  exciting  one.    The  old-time  Repub- 
Ucan  stronghold,  the  Eastern  industrial  states,  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York,  Massachusetts,  and  Rhode  Island,  was 
reenforced  by  new  manufacturing  centers  in  Illinois,  Wis- 


Wayside  Forge 


Coke  Ovens  of  Birmingham,  Alabama 


i|    I 


II 


<   !| 

I 


i   I 


t' 


» 


Contemporary  Problems 


323 


consin,  and  Michigan,  whose  representatives  determined 
to  "  stand  pat "  for  the  old  regime.  The  citizens  of  the 
mountain  states,  Washington,  Wyoming,  Idaho,  Utah,  and 
Montana,  rallied  to  the  support  of  duties  on  lumber, 
hides,  wool,  copper,  and  beet  sugar.  Even  Missouri  sent 
RepubKcan  representatives  to  secure  protection  for  her 
zinc  mines.  California  was  opposed  to  duties  on  lumber 
and  manufactured  goods,  but  was  eager  to  obtain  addi- 
tional protection  for  her  fruits  and  wines.  The  stanch 
Democracy  of  the  "Solid  South"  was  breaking  down 
under  the  influence  of  her  infant  industries,  the  cotton 
mills,  iron  manufactures,  phosphate  mines,  and  petroleum 
wells  that  clamored  for  protection.  The  interest  of  the 
consumers,  though  the  majority  of  the  population  in  every 
section,  were  not  so  well  organized  and  therefore  less 
influential. 

The  overwhelming  Republican  victory  of  November, 
1908,  assured  revision  on  conservative  Unes.  The  House 
of  Representatives  had  rejected  a  proposition  for  a  tariff 
commission  that  should  make  an  impartial  study  of  the 
comparative  cost  of  production  at  home  and  abroad  and 
so  indicate  the  just  measure  of  reduction  in  the  several 
schedules,  but  had  empowered  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  to  collect  information  in  a  series  of  tariff 
hearings.  During  the  winter  public  hearings  were  held  Tariff  Hear- 
at  Washington  and  a  mass  of  testimony  was  accumulated,  ^"^^' 
furnished  for  the  most  part  by  manufacturers  and  other 
interested  parties.  The  extra  session  convened  on  March 
15,  1909,  lasted  until  August,  and  the  tariff  was  the  sole 
subject  under  debate.  The  bill  as  reported  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means  (Sereno  Payne  of  New  York, 
chairman)  proposed  a  thoroughgoing  revision,  involving 
a  considerable  reduction  of  the  duties  on  manufactures 
and  on  free  raw  materials,  i.e.  coal,  iron  ore,  and  hides.  The 
attempt  to  put  lumber  and  petroleum  on  the  free  list  had 
failed  because  of  the  persistent  opposition  of  the  "  stand- 
patters," and  various  rates  had  been  raised  above  the 
Bingley  level  in  the  interest  of  influential  manufacturers. 


1908-1909. 


i\ 


k 


^ns  ' 


WiUis, 
TariflE  of 
1909. 


I 


324      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  "  insurgent "  Republicans  from  the  Middle  West 
strove  to  amend  the  bill  in  the  consumer's  interest,  and 
did  succeed  in  removing  duties  on  the  products  of  petro- 
leum, but  the  bill  as  it  passed  the  House  was  distinctly  a 
protective  measure.  Meantime  Senator  Aldrich,  chair- 
man of  the  Finance  Committee,  had  been  ])reparing  a 
bill  more  in  keeping  with  Republican  traditions,  and  this 
was  introduced  in  the  Senate  as  a  substitute  for  the  House 
bill.  The  Dingley  rates  on  petroleum  products,  twenty- 
five  cents  per  ton  on  iron  ore,  sixty  cents  per  ton  on  coal, 
$1.50  per  thousand  feet  on  lumber,  together  with  many 
well-concealed  advances  on  di\^erse  manufactures,  rendered 
the  Aldrich  bill  as  it  passed  the  Senate,  a  more  effectively 
protective  measure  than  the  Dingley  Act  itself. 

The  House  rejected  the  Senate  bill  and  the  Senate  re- 
jected that  sent  up  from  the  House,  so  that  both  bills 
with  the  mass  of  amendments  attached  were  referred  to  a 
Joint  Conference.  Here  there  was  a  veritable  tug  of  war 
(July  12-29),  but  when,  exhausted  by  the  fatigues  of  a 
midsummer  session,  the  conferees  were  about  to  agree 
upon  a  measure  that  embodied  some  of  the  worst  features 
of  the  rival  bills.  President  Taft  intervened.  He  inti- 
mated his  determination  to  sign  no  measure  that  did  not 
provide  for  the  consumer's  interests,  and  urged  the  restora- 
tion of  coal,  hides,  and  lumber  to  the  free  list.  Under 
executive  pressure  the  most  obnoxious  schedules  were 
hastily  revised  within  the  limits  defined  by  the  original 
bills  and  the  numerous  amendments  thereto ;  the  duty  on 
iron  was  reduced  to  fifteen  cents  per  ton,  that  on  coal  to 
forty-five  cents,  the  lumber  duty  to  $1.25  i)er  thousand 
feet,  while  hides  were  admitted  free.  The  Payne-Aldrich 
Bill  passed  the  House  on  July  31  and  the  Senate  on 
August  5,  and  was  signed  by  the  President  on  the  same 
day.  In  the  oflftcial  statement  of  his  reasons  for  signing 
the  bill,  Mr.  Taft  asserted  that  it  represented  a  substantial 
revision  downward,  that  with  the  exception  of  the  duties 
on  "  whiskey,  liquors  and  wines,  silks  and  high  class  cotton 
goods,  all  of  which  may  be  treated  as  luxuries  and  proper 


Contemporary  Problems 


325 


subjects  of  a  revenue  tariff,"  there  were  few  increases  in 
rates.  The  admission  of  tobacco  and  of  three  hundred 
thousand  tons  per  annum  of  sugar  from  the  Philippine 
Islands  duty  free,  was  an  act  of  justice  in  which  he  took 
much  pride.  The  woolen  schedule  where  the  Dingley 
rates  were  maintained,  although  confessedly  far  above  the 
rates  necessary  to  protect  the  manufacturer  against  for- 
eign competition,  the  President  regarded  as  the  "one 
important  defect  in  the  bill." 

Comparisons  of  the  rates  imposed  in  the  Payne-Aldrich  Shaw,  Payne 
Act  with  the  Dingley  average,  made  by  the  Finance  Com-  ^^drich 
mittee  of  the  Senate,  by  the  customs  house  experts,  and  ^^^' 
by  the  public  press,  failed  to  demonstrate  any  substantial 
change.    The  critics  of  the  measure  asserted  that  there  had 
been  an  average  advance  of  two  per  cent  ad  valorem  on 
goods  imported;    its  defendants  claimed  a  reduction  of 
from  one  and  a  half  to  two  per  cent.     The  difference  in 
cost  of  production  at  home  and  abroad,  so  much  talked 
of  during  the  campaign,  was  not  the  determining  issue  in 
congressional  debate,  since  the  effort  to  secure  adequate 
data  for  the  estimation  of  such  difference  had  been  de- 
feated by  the  leaders  of  the  party  in   power.     Senator 
Beveridge's  bill  for  a  preliminary  tariff  commission  had 
been   voted  down  although   indorsed    by    the   National 
Manufacturers  Associadon,  and  the  provision  of  the  new 
law  for  a  Tariff  Board  was  shorn  of    all  significance  by 
eliminating    the  function  of  investigation.     The  evidence 
submitted  by  the  German  government  as  to  costs  of  pro- 
duction   in    that   country   was   not   published   until   the 
Payne-Aldrich  Bill  had  reached  the  final  stages. 

The  mysteries  of  tariff-making  were  never  better  exem-  Taussig. 
plitied  than  m  this  most  recent  attempt  to  meet  all  the  Tariff  of 
demands  of  a  widely  diversified  constituency,  to  reconcile  '^* 
the  conflicting  interests  of  manufacturer  and  consumer,  to 
adjust  the  balance  between  the  producers  of  raw  material 
and  finished  product.    A  conspicuous  example  was  the 
battle  waged  over  Schedule  M,  Paper  and  Woodpulp      In 
spite  of  a  vigorous  campaign  on  the  part  of  newspapers 


tlllll 


III 


WUlis, 
Tariff, 
1909. 


Ill 


326      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

and  publishers  against  the  excessive  import  duties  on 
paper,  the  powerful  business  combinations  in  control  of 
this  industry  were  able  to  resist  thoroughgoing  revision. 
Early  in  1908  the  House  of  Representatives  had  appointed 
a  select  committee  to  investigate  the  paper  manufacture 
and  consider  modifications  in  the  duties.     They  made  a 
careful  and  impartial  inquiry  and  brought  in  a  report  to 
the   effect   that   the   cost   of  production   was   somewhat 
greater  in  this  country  than  abroad,  together  with  the 
recommendation  that  wood  pulp  be  transferred  to  the 
free  list  and  that  the  duty  on  print  paper  be  reduced  from 
$6  to  $2  per  ton.     The  recommendations  of  the  committee 
were  adopted  by  the  House,  but  in  the  Senate  the  duty 
on  print  paper  was  raised  to  $4  per  ton.     The  Joint  Con- 
ference agreed  upon  $3.75,  and  stipulated  that  the  duties 
on  wood  pulp  were  to  be  remitted  only  in  case  Canada 
should  remove  her  export  duties  on  the  same.     The  Inter- 
national   Paper   Trust   owns  4,500,000    acres    of    spruce 
timber  on  both  sides  the  boundary    and  therefore  prefers 
to  manufacture  its  own  pulp.     There  is  no  import  duty  on 

spruce  timber. 

The  reciprocity  poUcy  that  had  been  so  succ:essful  a 
feature  of  the  McKinley  and  Dingley  acts  was  abandoned. 
In  place  of  the  proposal  to  lower  customs  duties  in  respect 
to  countries  that  offered  reciprocal  favors,   the   Payne- 
Aldrich  Tariff  provided  that  an  increment  of  twenty-five 
per  cent  ad  valorem  should  be  added  to  the  whole  range 
of  duties  on  imports  from  countries  that  fail  to  accord  us 
the  most  favored  nation  treatment.     Under  the  IDingley 
Act  a  reduction  of  twenty  per  cent  on  specific  commod- 
ities had  been  made  in  a  series  of  treaties  with  govern- 
ments that  agreed  to  accord  us  corresponding  favors ;  but 
now  a   threat  was  substituted    for    an   invitation,    the 
termination   of  the   reciprocity  treaties  was  announced, 
and  only  by  the  most  skillful  diplomacy  was  tariff  war 
with  France  and  Germany  averted.     Moreover,  our  trade 
with  Canada,  amounting  to  $242,000,000  per  annum,  was 
in  jeopardy. 


Contemporary  Problems 


327 


The  revenue-producing  capacity  of  the  new  tariff  was 
in  doubt  from  the  first.  Commercial  restrictions  mean 
declining  imports  and  diminishing  customs  receipts.  Cer- 
tain sumptuary  taxes  were  imposed  on  articles  of  luxury, 
such  as  automobiles  and  foreign-built  yachts,  on  wines 
and  brandies,  and  on  injurious  drugs,  such  as  opium, 
morphia,  and  cocaine ;  but  even  so  a  deficit  was  feared. 
Provision  for  an  inheritance  tax  was  introduced  by  the 
House  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  but  this  was 
abandoned  on  the  ground  that  such  taxes  were  already 
levied  in  many  states,  and  an  income  tax  amendment 
was  carried  in  the  Senate  by  insurgent  and  Democratic 
votes.  In  place  of  this  unpalatable  expedient,  the  Ad- 
ministration suggested  a  tax  of  two  per  cent  (later  reduced  Conant,  Cor- 
to  one  per  cent)  on  the  net  revenues  of  all  business  cor-  porationTax. 
porations  whose  income  exceeded  $5000  per  annum. 
The  constitutionality  of  this  federal  tax  on  corporations 
chartered  by  the  states  is  yet  to  be  tested. 

Expansion  of  Commerce:   Decline  of  Shipping 

The  high  tariff  policy,  maintained  with  slight  modifica- 
tion for  fifty  years,  has  had  the  effect  of  checking  the  im- 
portation of  foreign  goods.  Imports  have  increased,  in- 
deed, but  not  more  rapidly  than  population,  while  the 
ratio  of  exports  to  population  has  steadily  risen. 


Year 

Imports  per 
Capita 

Exports  per 
Capita 

i860 

1 

$11.21 
11.31 

13-32 
12.60 
II. 14 

13-57 

I10.60 

1870        

1880        

10.19 
16.43 

1890 

1900        

13-50 
17.96 

1908        

21.04 

I 

With  the  exceptions  of  1875,  1888  and  1889,  and  1893, 
years  of  industrial  depression,  the  balance  of  trade  has 


328      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Contemporary  Problems 


329 


Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Ch.X. 


1.  ■ 
^1 


Rept.  of  the 

Industrial 
Commission, 
VI,    Pt.  Ill, 

vm. 


North, 
Tarifi  and 
Export 
Trade. 


Rept.  Indust. 
Com.,  VI, 

Pt.  I,  n. 


Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 

VI,  Pt.  I,  n 


been  in  our  favor  for  a  generation.  The  total  excess  of 
exports  over  imports  for  thirty  years  past  exceeds  eight 
and  a  quarter  billion  dollars. 

For  every  year  following  on  1897  the  value  of  our  ex- 
ports has  exceeded  $1,000,000,000.     This  extraordinary 
showing  is  due  in  part  to  the  increasing  foreign  demand 
for  the  raw  materials  suppUed  by  American  farms,  mines, 
and  forests.     The  export  tables  of  1908  report  $437,800,000 
in  raw  cotton,  $100,000,000  in  pig  copper,  $34,000,000  in 
leaf  tobacco,  and  $21,000,000  in  naval  stores.     During  the 
last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  we  achieved  a 
notable  commercial  triumph  in  the  conquest  of  foreign 
markets  for  our  manufactured  commodities.     The  surplus 
products  of  our  cotton  mills,  shoe  factories,  iron  and  steel 
works,  etc.,  have  sought  and  secured  purchasers  abroad. 
Cotton  goods  to  the  value  of  $22,000,000  are  sent  to  the 
Orient,  where  they  sell  in  competition  with  English  and 
German    goods.     Sewing    machines    to    the    amount    of 
$7,000,000  and  agricultural  implements  worth  $24,000,000 
are  annually  sent  to  foreign  markets,  and  the  total  export 
of  iron  manufactures  in  1908  amounted  to  $184,000,000. 
Farm  products  are  now  being  exported,  not  only  in  the 
rough,  as  grain,  cattle,  etc.,  but  as  prepared  foods,  which 
represent  greater  value  in  proportion  to  bulk.    The  mills 
of  Minnesota  grind  not  for  domestic  markets  only,  but 
for  European  as  well.     The  Pacific  ports  —  San  I^ancisco, 
Portland,  Seattle,  and  Tacoma  —  ship  the  harvests  of  the 
wheat  ranches  of  California  and  the  Columbia  River  basin 
to  Hawaii,  Japan,  China,  and  India.     One  third  of  these 
shipments  is  sent  in  the  form  of  flour,  that  wheat  may 
the  more  easily  supplant  rice  in  the  Oriental  diet.     Re- 
frigerator cars  and  refrigerator  steamers  enable  the  pack- 
ing houses  of  Chicago  and  Omaha  to  send  dressed  meats 
to  any  part  of  the  world.    The  exports  of  prepared  meats 
in  1908  were  six  times  the  value  of  the  live  animals  shipped 
abroad.    Modern  transportation  facilities  bring  the  Ameri- 
can farmer,  whether  on  the  cotton  lands  of  the  "black 
belt,"  the  cattle  ranches  of  the  plains,  the  orange  groves 


TONNAGE 

OF 
VESSELS 
2,500,000 

2,250,000 

2.000.000 

1.760.000 

1,600,000 

1,250,000 

1,000,000 

760,000 

600,000 

250.000 


,^__ 

VALUE  OF  iimnrre 

IN  DOLLARS 

EXPORTS  AND  IMPORTS 

OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES 

AND  TONNAGE   OF 

UNITED  STATES  VESSELS 

REGISTERED   FOR  FOREIGN  TRADE 
I860  -   1910. 

Exports 

Imports 

Ton  r»  age 

1 

/ 

1,600,000,000 

1,450,000,000 
1  inn  nnn  nnn 

1 1 

\' 

\~f~ 

l,4UU<U(/U,UUU 
1  QKn  nnn  nnn 

1 

1  Qnn  nnn  nnn 

1  ORn  nnn  nnn 

1 

1  onn  nnn  nnn 

1  IRA  nnn  nnn 

l|IOu,UUU,UUU 

1 

1,100,000,000 

I 

•       M 

1,050,000,000 

1,000.000,000 

950,000,000 

i   1 

;  1 

1  I 

■\ 

900,000,000 
850.000,000 
800,000,000 

1 

\t' 

I  \/ 

1 

. '  1 

^ 

1 
1 

1 

_aU 

1, 

760,000.000 

1 
1 

; 

i 

1 

700,000,000 

1 
1 

1 

/ 

V 

650,000,000 

/     '\ 

1 
• 
1 
■ 

1 

600,000,000 

/     1 
/     1 
1     1 

( 

650,000,000 

'1 

4— 

1     1 
1     t 

[     1 

\ 

600,000.000 

\ 

\\ 

1 
/ 
1 

V 

450.000.000 

\ 

V 

400,000,000' 

\\ 

:>  ( 

—  \ 

350.000,000 

y 

1 
1 

\ 

\ 

^  __ 

300.000.000 

t 

250,000,000 

• 

■.r^ 

^v^ 

200,000,000 

-V 

150.000,000 

100,000,000 

50,000,000 

2        " 

a 

0 

ca 

c 

■ 

m            go 

2        «" 
0        0 

0 
• 

II K 


II 


Laughlin 
and  Willis, 
Ch.  Ill,  XI. 


Semple, 
Ch.  XVIII. 


Stat. 

Abstract  of 
U.  S.,  iQog, 
3S8,  557-562, 


Marvin. 
Ch.  XVI. 


330     Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  California,  or  the  vegetable  gardens  of  Texas,  within 
reach  of  a  profitable  market.  Apples  are  sent  from  Hood 
River,  Oregon,  to  the  epicures  of  Paris,  and  pineapples 
from  Hawaii  reach  the  fruiterers  of  New  York  (^^ity. 

The  rapidly  increasing  proportions  of  our  exjDort  trade 
necessitate  the  seeking  out  of  new  purchasers.  The  in- 
dustrial justification  for  the  purchase  of  Alaska,  the  an- 
nexation of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  and  of  Porto  Rico,  the 
retention  of  the  Philippines,  and  the  maintenance  of  reci- 
procity relations  with  Cuba  is  the  advantage  of  securing 
commercial  control  of  these  complementary  markets.  To 
the  mining  camps  of  Alaska  we  send  provisions  in  ex- 
change for  gold ;  to  the  tropic  islands  we  send  foodstuffs, 
textiles,  and  machinery  in  exchange  for  raw  sugar,  fruits, 
and  hemp.  Our  exports  to  Cuba  come  to  more  than 
$42,000,000  annually,  Hawaii  and  Alaska  take  from  us 
more  than  $18,000,000  each,  and  Porto  Rico  $23,000,000, 
while  our  exports  to  the  Philippine  Islands  amount  to 
$5,000,000  a  year,  not  more  than  half  their  total  sales 
to  the  United  States. 

This  period  of  extraordinary  commercial  expansion  has 
witnessed  an  unparalleled  falling  off  in  our  ocean  marine. 


Stat. 

Abstract  of 
U.  S.,  1908, 
284,  296-298, 


Year 


i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 
1908 


Tonnage 


2,379,396 
1,448,846 

1,314,402 
928,062 
816,79s 
930,413 


Tonnage 
PER  Capita 


•075 
•037 
.026 

.014 

.010 


Proportion  or 
Foreign  Commerce 

carried  on  in 
American  Vessels 


Per  Cent 
66.5 

35-6 
17.4 
12.9 

D-3 
9.8 


U.S.  Census, 
igoo,  X, 
20^-239. 


The  reverses  of  the  Civil  War  have  never  been  made  good. 
During  the  generation  following,  the  tonnage  registered 
for  the  foreign  trade  decreased  fifty  per  cent.     The  lowest 


Pine  Apple  Plantation  in  Hawaiian  Islands 


Contemporary  Problems 


331 


ebb  was  reached  in  1898,  the  year  of  tlje  Spanish  War, 
when  our  total  tonnage  of  steam  and  saihng  vessels  com- 
bined was  but  726,213.  Now,  at  the  opening  of  the 
twentieth  century,  nine  tenths  of  our  exports  and  imports 
are  consigned  to  ships  that  float  a  foreign  flag. 

This  decay  in  our  ocean  marine  is  the  more  striking 
because  the  tonange  employed  in  the  coastwise  trade  has 
doubled,  and  that  on  the  Great  Lakes  has  trebled  during 
the  same  period.  Commercial  ventures  in  these  waters 
are  protected  by  the  exclusion  of  foreign  competitors. 
The  immense  shipments  of  iron  ore,  lumber,  and  wheat 
from  Duluth,  Chicago,  and  Milwaukee  to  Buffalo  and 
other  Lake  Erie  ports,  call  into  requisition  great  freight 
steamers  of  speed,  strength,  and  hold  capacity  not  excelled 
in  seagoing  vessels.  The  extension  of  our  coastwise 
regulations  to  Alaska,  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  the 
Philippines  has  given  the  growing  traffic  from  our  Pacific 
ports  largely  into  the  hands  of  American  vessels,  and  the 
tonnage  registered  for  the  Pacific  trade  has  increased  by 
120  per  cent  since  1897.  The  total  tonnage  now  em- 
ployed in  the  coastwise  trade  and  in  the  service  of  the 
Great  Lakes  and  western  rivers  is  6,500,000,  eight  times 
the  tonnage  registered  for  foreign  trade. 

The  Subsidy  Policy.  —  Legislation  in  behalf  of  our  sea- 
going marine  has  been  broached  in  Congress  several  times 
in  the  past  twenty  years.  Differential  tonnage  duties  and 
preferential  tariffs,  after  the  precedent  of  the  first  decades 
of  our  national  history,  are  incompatible  with  the 
commercial  treaties  now  in  force,  and  the  subsidy  pohcy, 
practiced  by  our  principal  European  competitors,  has 
been  adopted  as  the  best  means  of  strengthening  our 
merchant  service.  Senator  Frye  of  Maine  brought  for- 
ward two  bills  in  1891,  the  first  proposing  to  subsidize 
mail  steamers  and  the  second  freight  steamers  and  sailing 
vessels,  in  proportion  to  speed  and  tonnage.  Both  meas- 
ures passed  the  Senate,  but  the  second  was  defeated  in  the 
House,  and  the  Postal  Aid  Law,  as  finally  enacted,  provided 
for  much  lower  rates  than  Frye  had  originally  proposed. 


Stat. 

Abstract  of 
U.S.,  1909, 
301-302. 

Marvin, 

375-380, 
400-412. 

Bates, 
Ch.  XVIII. 

Semple, 
Ch.  XIX. 


Marvin, 
Ch.  XVIII. 

Bates, 

Ch.  XXVII. 

Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erences on 
Subsidies. 


Rept.  Frye 
Committee, 
SI  Cong., 
I  St  Session, 
House  Rept, 
No.  1 2 10, 
also  Nos. 
2766,  3273- 


332      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


Contemporary  Problems 


333 


I 


Subsidy  Offered  to  Mail  Steamers,  1891 


i 


Frye,  North 
Atlantic 
Steamship 
Transporta- 
tion. 


1 

hi 


McVey, 
The  Frye 
Subsidy  Bill. 


Ct.ass 

Tonnage 

SPKKn 

Payment  for 
OuTWAKD  Voyage 

First 

Second 

Third 

Fourth 

8000 
5000 
2500 
1500 

Knots 

20 
16 

14 
12 

r — - 

Per  Mile 

I4.00 
3.00 
I.OO 
0.67 

Under  this  law,  mail  contracts  were  negotiated  with  the 
Pacific  Mail  Company  for  service  between  New  York  and 
Colon,  Panama,  and  San  Francisco,  and  from  San  Fran- 
cisco to  Hongkong  and  Yokohama;  with  the  Oceanic 
Steamship  Company  for  service  between  San  Francisco 
and  Honolulu  and  Australia;  with  the  Ward  Line  to 
Havana  and  Mexico ;  with  the  Red  D  Line  to  Venezuela, 
etc. ;  but  our  Pacific  and  South  American  service  was 
not  endangered  by  European  competition.  The  only 
company  prepared  to  undertake  a  mail  contract  for 
transatlantic  service  was  the  Inman  Line,  recently  come 
under  American  management.  The  subsidy  of  $12,000  on 
every  outward  voyage  enabled  this  company  to  maintain 
a  fleet  of  four  first-class  steamers.  These  vessels,  together 
with  some  of  the  larger  coasting  steamers,  were  requisi- 
tioned for  the  government  service  during  the  Spanish  War, 
when  the  requirement  that  all  of  the  officers  and  one  half 
of  the  crew  of  a  subsidized  ship  be  American  citizens 
proved  to  have  political  as  well  as  economic  significance. 

The  subsidy  offered  in  1891  proved  insufficient  to  in- 
duce new  ventures  in  the  transatlantic  service  or  to  main- 
tain contract  vessels  on  the  longer  routes  to  South  America, 
Australasia,  and  the  Orient.  Although  four  fifths  of  the 
freight  and  three  fourths  of  the  first  cabin  passe?nger 
traffic  originates  in  the  United  States,  the  major  part  of 
the  shipping  employed  belongs  to  Great  Britain,  Ger- 
many, France,  and  Japan,  so  that  large  sums  are  every 
year  paid  to  foreign  companies  in  freights  and  fares  as 


well  as  for  mail  service.  In  the  hope  of  enabling  American 
ships  to  compete  with  the  heavily  subsidized  EngUsh  lines. 
Senator  Frye  reintroduced  in  1901  a  general  subsidy  bill. 
It  called  for  an  annual  appropriation  of  $9,000,000  for  a 
term  of  thirty  years.  The  rates  proposed  were  one  third 
higher  than  those  already  prevaiHng,  and  they  were 
offered  to  freight  steamers  and  to  sailing  vessels.  The 
bill  was  vigorously  supported  by  the  commercial  and 
shipbuilding  interests,  but  it  was  ultimately  defeated  by 
the  opposition  of  the  agricultural  sections  South  and  West. 

Again  in  January,  19 10,  when  the  niunber  of  contract 
vessels  had  dwindled  to  four  on  the  Atlantic  and  four  on 
the  Pacific,  and  the  mail  subsidy  had  shrunken  to  $1,185,000 
per  year,  Congressman  Humphreys  of  the  State  of  Wash- 
ington introduced  a  bill  in  behalf  of  the  Pacific  merchant 
marine.  Foreign  built  steel  vessels  were  to  be  admitted 
to  American  registry  and  the  mail  subsidy  was  doubled 
for  vessels  of  the  second  and  third  class  engaged  in  Pacific 
service,  ships  owned  by  railway  companies  being  excluded. 
The  tonnage  tax  was  raised  from  six  cents  to  twelve  cents 
(never  to  exceed  $1.20  per  ton  per  year)  but  eighty  per  cent 
of  this  charge  was  to  be  remitted  for  United  States  vessels 
carrying  American  boys  as  apprentices. 

The  International  Mercantile  Marine  Company.  —  The 
restoration  to  ordinary  trade  of  the  merchantmen  requi- 
sitioned for  transport  service  in  the  South  African  and 
Spanish-American  wars  brought  on  ruinous  competition 
and  a  rate  war  that  threatened  disaster  even  to  well- 
established  lines.  In  1902  a  combination  of  the  principal 
transatlantic  companies,  with  a  view  to  maintaining 
profitable  rates,  distributing  tonnage  among  the  ports 
and  railroads  to  be  served,  and  adjusting  sailings  to  traffic, 
was  undertaken  by  C.  A.  Griscom,  president  of  the  Inman 
Line,  and  J.  P.  Morgan,  the  great  New  York  banker. 
The  possession  of  the  Inman,  Red  Star,  and  Leland  lines, 
and  the  purchase  of  a  majority  interest  in  the  Atlantic 
Transport,  White  Star,  and  Dominion  lines  gave  the 
combmation  control  of  one  hundred  and  forty  first-class 


Repts.  Frye 
Committee, 
55th  Cong., 
3rd  Session. 
Senate  Rept. 
No.  1551. 

5 7th  Cong. 
ist  Session, 
Senate  Rept 
No.  201. 


Spring,  Ship 
Subsidies. 


Gunsburg, 
The  Atlantic 
Shipping 
Combine. 


Meade, 
Capitaliza- 
tion of  the 
Int.  Mer. 
Marine  Cu. 

Chamberlain 
The  New 
Cunard 
Steamship 
Contract. 


I     ' 


Hi 


llll 
II 


III 


334     Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

steamers    representing  more  than  a  miUion  tons  freight 
SSty  and  one  third  the  transaUantic  passenger  accom- 
modations.   The  negotiation  of  a  "  worlang  agj™^ 
with  the  two  great  German  Unes  and  the  pnncipal  French 
Td  iutch  companies  gave  the  International  Mercan^e 
Marine    a    practical    monopoly    of    commerce    between 
Se  and  America.    Alarmed  for  the  integrity  of  the.r 
merchant   service,   the   British   government   offered     he 
Sunard  Company,  as  the  price  of  independence  an  annua 
subsidy  of  $750,000  on  a  twenty-year  contract,  and  sub 
sidies  were  withdrawn  from  the  White  Star  hne. 

Ocean  Freight  Rates  on  Wheat,  Cork,  Rve  Pek  Cwt.  erom 

New  York  to  Liverpool 


Contemporary  Problems 


335 


The  Morgan  combination  was  formed  at  the  close  of  a 
decade  of  abnormal  prosperity,  and  the  subsidizing  com- 
pares were  taken  over  at  a  price  based  on  the  revenues  of 
xX  with  no  regard  to  cost  of  ships  or  previous  capita  ,- 
Xn     The   economies   of   combination   were   overesti- 
mS  and  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  maintaining 
monoporof  the  transaUantic  trade  were  miscalculated^ 
?r^c  of  1903  well-nigh  wreck^  the  enterpnse^-J^ 
its  capital  stock  of  $170,600,000  shrank  to  $70,000000 
mar^t  value.    No  dividends  have  a^  yet  been  paid  on 
prrferred  or  common  stock.    The  International  Mercan- 


tile  Marine  has  lost  control  of  its  French,  German,  and 
English  lines,  but  it  has  done  much  to  insure  financial 
permanence  to  the  American  transatlantic  service. 

Currency  Problems 

Demonetization  of  Silver :    the  Gold  Standard.  —  Our 

bimetallic  currency  system  has  never  been  in  full  and 
successful  operation.  The  overvaluation  of  gold  in  the 
Coinage  Act  of  1834  was  enhanced  by  the  enormous  out- 
put of  the  California  mines.  Production  of  silver  in  the 
United  States  was  inconsiderable  until  1870  and  the 
annual  output  was  readily  absorbed  in  the  arts,  httle  was 
brought  to  the  mints,  and  that  little  was  coined  into  de- 
based fractional  currency,  as  provided  by  the  Act  of 
1853.  The  sum  total  of  the  silver  dollars  coined  from 
1789  to  1873  was  but  eight  millions,  while  gold  had  been 
coined  since  1850  at  the  rate  of  $32,000,000  per  year. 
No  specie  was  in  circulation  during  the  war  period  except 
the  $25,000,000  in  gold  used  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  the 
attempt  to  get  back  to  a  specie  basis,  Congress  naturally 
overlooked  the  part  that  sUver  had  been  intended  to 
serve  in  our  currency  system.  The  Coinage  Act  of  1873 
aimed  to  conform  currency  legislation  to  existing  condi- 
tions ;  the  silver  dollar  of  371.25  grains  was  dropped  from 
the  hst  of  coins  to  be  minted,  but  the  manufacture  of  a 
com  containing  378  grains  of  pure  silver  was  authorized 
for  use  in  the  Oriental  trade.  This  trade  dollar,  like  the 
fractional  silver,  was  given  legal  tender  efficiency  to  the 
amount  of  five  dollars  only. 

The  demonetization  of  silver  attracted  little  attention 
at  the  moment,  but  it  was  soon  denounced  in  bitterest 
terms  as  a  fraud  perpetrated  upon  an  unsuspecting  people 
by  the  money  lenders  of  WaU  Street.  The  supposed  plot 
was  not  discovered  until  the  increasing  output  of  silver 
from  the  Nevada  mines  brought  an  oversupply  of  that 
metal  into  the  market  and  caused  a  fall  in  price.  Unfor- 
tunately for  this  interest,  the  foreign  market  was  seriously 


DewQT, 

403-410. 

Laughlin, 

ch.  vn. 

Rept.  of 
the  U.S. 
Monetary 
Commission, 
1876. 


Noyes, 
American 
Finance, 
35-42. 


Laughlin, 
Ch.  XIII. 

Sherman,  II, 
603-635. 


i  I 


II 


Noyes,  Am. 
Finance, 
Ch.  IV,  VI 


336      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

curtailed  at  this  same  time  by  the  demonetization  of  silver 
in   Germany   (1871),  in  Holland  and  the  Scandinavian 
Peninsula    (1875),    and   in    Austria    (1879).     The   Latin 
Union  continued  to  use  silver  as  legal  tendt^r,  but  sus- 
pended coinage  in   1873.     By  consequence,  the  market 
ratio  of  silver  to  gold  veered  from  15.57  in  1871  to  17.87 
m  1876.     Close  upon  this  drop  in  market  value  arose  a 
demand  for  the  renewed  coinage  of  silver  at  the  legal  ratio 
of   sixteen   to   one.     The   agitation   originated   with   the 
mine  owners  of  Nevada  and  Colorado,  who  wished  to  dis- 
pose of  their  product  at  the  mint;    but  it  was  eagerly 
seconded  by  the  debtor  class,  the  unfaiHng  advocates  of 
cheap  and  abundant  money.     The  farmers  of  the  new 
West,  struggling  under  heavy  mortgages,  were  easil>-  con- 
vinced that  the  value  of  gold  had  been  advanced  by  the 
money  monopoUsts  of  New  York  City,  and  that  silver 
was  the  true  measure  of  purchasing  power.     The  panic  of 
1873  and  the  prolonged  stringency  in  the  money  market 
lent  plausibility  to  this  not  unnatural  inference. 

Richard  Bland  of  Missouri  brought  before  the  House 
(1876)  a  bill  providing  for  the  free  and  unUmited  coinage 
of  sUver  at  the  ratio  estabhshed  in  1834.    The  biU  passed 
the  House  after  protracted  debate,  but  a  Senate  amend 
ment  restricted  the  amount  of  silver  bulUon  that  might 
be  presented  at  the  mint  and  authorized  the  secretary  of 
the  treasury  to  coin  at  his  discretion  from  two  to  four 
milUon  dollars'  worth  of  silver  per  month.    President  Hayes 
vetoed  the  measure  on  the  ground  that  the  proposed  dollar 
was  eight  or  ten  cents  less  in  value  than  it  professed  to  be  ; 
but  the  bill  was  carried  over  his  veto  and  became  law  in 
1878.     The  silver   dollars   coined  under   the   Bland  Act 
were  to  have  full  legal  tender  efficiency,  and  their  circula- 
tion was  furthered  by  the  issue  of  paper  certificates  against 
the  coin  held  at  the  mints. 

This  law  was  in  force  for  twelve  years,  during  which 

time  there  were  coined  $369  400,000  silver  dollars,  and  the 

coinage   of   gold   for   the   same   interval   amounted    to 

'0,600,000.    The  volume  of  the  specie  currency  was 


Contemporary  Problems 


337 


doubled,  the  total  per  capita  circulation  rising  from 
$15.32  in  1878  to  $22.82  in  1880,  and  money  was  more 
abundant  than  in  the  years  of  inflation  preceding  the 
crisis  of  1873.  Gold  began  to  leave  the  country 
($32,000,000  was  exported  in  1882  and  $41,000,000  in 
1884),  and  silver  superseded  gold  in  payments  on  govern- 
ment obligations  as  well  as  in  private  exchange.  The 
crisis  of  1884  was  due  in  some  degree  to  this  adoption  of 
a  depreciated  currency. 

The  advocates  of  cheap  money  were  not  alarmed  by 
the  prospect  of   the   substitution   of   a   silver  standard. 
They  persistently  urged  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage 
of  silver  as  the  only  means  of  doing  justice  between  debtor 
and  creditor.     Under  the  names  of  the  Farmers  Alliance 
and  the  Populist  party,  the  agricultural  sections  argued 
now  as  always  for  inflation  of  the  currency.     The  agita- 
tion for  and  against  free  silver  culminated  in  the  Sherman 
Act  of  August  14,  1890,  a  measure  that  represented  the 
desires  of  neither  party,  but  was  a  compromise  of  con- 
tending interests.     The   secretary   of   the   treasury   was 
directed    to    purchase    silver    bullion    at    the    rate    of 
4,500,000    ounces    per    month,    the    market    price    (up 
to  the  limit  of  one  dollar  for  371.25  grains)  being  paid 
in  treasury  notes  issued  for   this   purpose  and   redeem- 
able in  gold  or  silver  on  demand.     The  Bland  Act  was 
repealed,  but  the  treasurer  was  authorized  to  coin  as 
much  of  this  bullion  into  standard  silver  dollars  as  might 
be  needed  from  time  to  time  for  the  redemption  of  the 
notes.    The  fixed  demand  for  fifty-four  million  ounces  a 
year,  coupled  with  exports,  promised  to  absorb  the  total 
annual  output  of  the  mines  of  the  United  States,  and 
this  prospect  brought  the  value  of  silver  well-nigh  up  to 
par.     The  market  ratio  in  August,  1890,  was  17.26  to  one, 
and  the  value  of  the  silver  bullion  in  a  standard  dollar 
rose  from  seventy-five  to  ninety-two  cents.     The  Sherman 
Act  held  for  three  years  and  a  half,  and  during  that  time 
the  government  bought  up  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine 
million  ounces  of  sflver  at  a  cost  of  $156,000,000.    After 


Dewey, 

436-450. 

Rept.  of 
the  Sec. 
of  the 
Treasury, 
1889, 
Ix-boodv. 


Sherman,  II, 
1061-1071. 

Hoxie, 
Debate  of 
1890. 

Taussig, 
The  Silver 
Situation, 
1-7 1. 

Noyes,  Am, 
Finance, 
Ch.  VII. 

Rept.  of 

Monetary 

Commission, 

1898, 

138-145. 


33^      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


a  brief  revival,  the  value  of  silver  slumped  again,  and  the 
Treasury  lost  $16,000,000  on  account  of  this  depreciated 
deposit. 


Ratio  op  Silver 
TO  Gold. 


Legal  Ratio 
[79 
t834+ 


f  1792-1834,      LS  :  I 


IS 
15-98:1 


tf*^  0  A 

U1 

C 

» 
1 

J 

IS3 

0 

U1 

0 

1/80 

1 

1  7.0  & 

i 

1  7.90 

1  7  A  C 

1  7-95 

1  800 

1805 

{ 

To  1  0 

i 

> 

1815 

1  B  n/\ 

1 

1820 

' 

1  825 

1830 

% 

1835 
1840 
1845 

- 

— 

1850 

\ 

1855 
.I860 

1865 

I  870 
1875 
1880 
1885 

} 

J 

< 

r890 

-4-- 

— ^ 

1  895 

c 

-^ 

1900 
(904 

^ 

^- 

\ 

L905 
J  906 
1907 

\ 

1 

— 

— 

— 

1908 
1909 
1010 

/ 

^ 

— 

This  chart  is  to  be  read  from  left  rfde  of  page.     Each  square  from  1904 
to  1909  represents  one  year. 


Contemporary  Problems 


339 


^  This  desperate  endeavor  to  raise  the  market  value  of 
silver  to  the  mint  ratio  was  ultimately  thwarted  by  events 
in  the  far  East.    The  British  government  suspended  the 
coinage  of  the  silver  rupee  in  June,  1893,  the  East  Indian 
market  was  suddenly  cut  off,  and  the  ratio  of  silver  to 
gold   veered   immediately    to    28.25    to    one.     President 
Cleveland  called  a  midsummer  extra  session  of  Congress 
and  presented  the  necessity  of  stopping  the  purchase  of 
silver.    The  House  readily  acquiesced,  but  the  Senate, 
where  the  silver  interest  had  been  recruited  by  the  admis- 
sion of  several  Western  states,  —  Wyoming,  Idaho,  and 
Montana,  —  stubbornly    contested    the    measure.     The 
Sherman  Act  was  finally  repealed,  and  the  purchases  of 
silver  bullion  ceased  in  December,  1894.     The  coinage  of 
the  silver  bullion  in  the  treasury  was  suspended  until  1898, 
when  the  minting  of  $1,500,000  per  month  was  ordered.' 
The  rating  of  the  discredited  metal  sank  to  32.56  to  one 
in  1894.    At  that  ratio,  the  value  of  the  silver  in  a  stand- 
ard dollar  was  but  forty-nine  cents. 

The  Financial  Crisis  of  1893.  —  Meantime,  the  business 
worid  was  convulsed  by  a  panic  of  unprecedented  severity. 
Advancing  prices  had  induced  speculative  investments 
and  the  banking  facHities  of  New  York  City  had  become 
heavily  involved.  The  failure  of  the  Philadelphia  and 
Reading  RaHroad  (February  20,  1893)  occasioned  wide- 
spread alarm,  and  the  general  pubUc  became  uneasy  as 
to  the  solvency  of  the  banking  system.  Depositors, 
notably  in  the  South  and  West,  began  to  demand  their 
hard-earned  cash,  and  the  banks  were  forced  to  call  in 
their  deposits  from  the  reserve  cities.  But  the  $204,000  000 
of  currency  absorbed  by  the  seaboard  institutions  had  been 
loaned  for  investment  and  was  not  easily  recovered 
Some  five  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  smaller  banks  were 
obliged  to  suspend,  and  the  financial  centers  were  only 
saved  from  a  like  disaster  by  resort  to  an  emergency 
currency  after  the  precedent  of  1857  and  1873.  The  New 
York  Cleanng  House  issued  loan  certificates  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  its  aflSHated  banks,  and  this   makeshift 


Cong. 
Record, 
XXV,  Pt.  I, 
205-206. 


Sherman,  II, 
1175-1200. 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue,  Ch. 
XXIV. 

Burton, 
292-305. 

Noyes, 
American 
Finance, 
Ch.  VUI. 


Rept. 
Monetary 
Com.,  1898, 
219-223. 


ii 


Dewey, 

460-462, 
468-471. 

Taussig, 
Currency 
Act  of  1900. 


Falkner, 
Currency 
Law  of  1900 


340      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

was  imitated  in  Boston,  Philadeli^hia,  Baltimore,  and  Pitts, 
burg.     The  business  failures  for  1893  numbered  15,242, 
the  total  losses  amounted  to  $346,779,889,  and  the  de- 
pression extended  to  every  branch  of   industry.     Many 
of  the  silver  mines  could  not  be  operated  at  prevailing 
prices  and  discharged  their  laborers;    the  European  de- 
mand for  wheat  fell  off,  and  the  price  of  this  great  staple 
dropped  to  fifty  cents  a  bushel,  and  this  decUne,  coupled 
with  the  faUure  of  the  corn  crop  (1894)  involved  thousands 
of  farmers  in  ruin;    manufacturers,  menaced  by  the  re- 
duction of  import  duties  proposed  in  the  Wilson  Bill,  cur- 
tailed production  or  shut  down  altogether,  traflic  declined 
and  freight  receipts  fell  off  to  a  disastrous  degree ;  railway 
companies  were  seriously  eml)arrassed  and  construction 
ceased,  the  demand  for  rails  and  structural  iron  shrank, 
and  steel  manufacturers  reduced    their  output  by  one 
third.     The  reaction  upon  wage  earners  was  severe  ;   idle 
farm  hands  tramped  the  country  in  search  of  work,  un- 
employed operatives  crowded  the  streets  of  the  factory 
towns,  demanding  work  or  food,  laborers  abandoned  the 
mining  districts  and  flocked  to  the  cities.    The  whole 
country  was  prostrated. 

The  election  of  1896,  involving  the  possibility  of  free 
coinage  of  silver  at  the  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one,  prolonged 
business  unrest,  and  the  failures  of  that  year  numbered 
15,088,  but  the  victory  of  the  RepubHcans  restored  con- 
fidence in  the  stabiUty  of  the  currency.     Decisive  action 
was,  however,  delayed  by  an  opposing  majority  in  the 
Senate,  and  not  until  1900  was  the  gold  standard  declared. 
The  extraordinary  revival  of  business  prosperity   after 
McKinley's  election  was  due  not  so  much  to  legislation 
as  to  far-reaching  transformation  of  economic:  conditions. 
The  failure  of  the  wheat  crop  in  Russia  and  Australia 
called  for  heavy  exportations  of  grain  and  brought  about 
a  welcome  rise  of  prices.     With  wheat  selling  at  a  dollar 
a  bushel,  the  farmer  could  pay  his  debts  and  spend  money 
for   improvements.    The   foreign   market   for   American 
steel  and  structural  iron  was  being  developed,  and  a  period 


Modern  Machinery  in  the  Corn  Belt 


I 


'I 


1  ',i 


Contemporary  Problems  341 

of  extraordinary  prosperity  opened  for  that  basic  indus- 
try.   The  discovery  of  gold  in  Alaska  brought  a  new 
supply  of  the  hoarded  metal  to  our  mints,  and  between 
1898  and  1908,  $1,105,332,650  in  gold  was  coined.    The 
bimetaUists  argument,  that  the  supply  of  gold  was  short 
of  the  demand,  and  that  its  value  was,  therefore,  appre- 
ciating  ceased  to  have  weight.     The  per  capita  currency 
circulation  rose  from  $21.41  i„   1896  to  $35.79  i„   j' 
and  the  advocates  of  abundant  money  were  fully  satisfied. 
Revision  of  the  National  Bank  System.  -The  volume 
of  the  currency  had  not  been  increased  by  the  national 
banks.    Their  issues  had  been  actually  curtailed  after  the 
financial  crises  of  1873  and  1884  and  1893.    The  amount 
of  the  notes  in  circulation  in  1891  was  but  $162,000,000, 
l^s  than  that  of  any  time  since  1865.     The  number  of 
the  nauonal  banks  was  steadily  increasing,  but  their  issues 
had  fallen  off  for  the  approaching  extinction  of  the  gov- 
ernment bonds  gave  these  securities  a  high  market  value 
To  issue  money  against  ninety  per  cent  of  the  par  value  of 

proctedt^*  "^^'^  ''""'^'^  "^^^  P^'  ^^  ""'  ^  profitable 
The  free  sUver  and  greenback  constituencies  were  quite 
content  to  see  this  element  of  our  currency  disappear. 
The  majority  of  our  national  banks  were  in  the  wealthy 
cities  of  the  East  and  North,  and  they  were  regarded  in 
other  sections  of  the  country  as  parties  to  the  conspiracy 
of  the  money  lenders  against  the  people.  Various  projects 
for  the  revival  of  the  national  bank  issue  were  broufiht 
forward  from  time  to  time,  such  as  the  extension  of  the 
term  of  the  national  bonds,  new  bond  issues,  the  substitu- 
tion of  state  and  municipal  bonds,  and  the  safety  fund 
system,  but  no  thoroughgoing  reform  was  able  to  secure 
a  majority  vote.  Finally  the  proposition  of  Secretary 
Gage  or  revision  of  the  existing  plan  was  adopted  and 
put  into  operation.     By  the  act  of  March  14,  1900   note 

T:^:Tof"^f.^  ''^  '""  ^^^^  ^^'-  of 'the  bonds! 
tax  on  circulation  was  reduced  from  one  per  cent  to 

one  half  of  one  per  cent,  and  national  banks  with  a  capital 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
Ch.  XV. 


Dewey,  385- 
391,  410-412, 
471-472. 

BoUes,  in, 
341-372. 


White, 
Money  and 
Banking, 
Ch.  XVI, 
XVII. 


Hepburn, 
State  and 
Nat'l  Bank 
Note  Cir- 
culation. 


■    ■!! 


Rept.  Sec. 
of  the  Treas., 
1897, 
76-77. 


II 


Rept. 
Monetary 
Com.,  1898, 
224-276. 


Noyes, 
American 
Finance, 
Ch.XX. 


Conant, 
Banks  of 
Issue, 
Ch.  XXV. 


342      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  but  $25,000  were  authorized  in  towns  of  not  more  than 
three  thousand  inhabitants.  These  modifications  offered 
considerable  reUef  from  the  difficulty  under  which  the 
banks  were  laboring.  The  issue  of  new  Federal  bonds 
for  the  Spanish  War  and  for  the  building  of  the  Panama 
Canal  enabled  the  banks  to  purchase  these  securities  on 
terms  under  which  currency  could  profitably  be  issued. 
By  September,  1901,  662  new  banks  were  chartered, 
country  banks  for  the  most  part,  capitalized  at  less  than 
$50,000.  The  number  of  national  banks  in  September, 
1907,  was  7000,  more  than  at  any  previous  period.  The 
issue  has  risen  to  $717,000,000,  and  the  average  dividend 
paid  by  national  banks  increased  from  3.94  per  cent 
in  1900  to  1 1.8  per  cent  in  1907. 

Reform  Propositions.  —  The  panic  of  1907  attracted 
renewed  attention  to  the  defects  of  our  banking  system 
The  special  strain  upon  credit  agencies  that  develops  in 
the  autumn  when  the  purchase  and  transportation  of 
crops  necessitates  extraordinary  drafts  upon  the  funds 
deposited  in  the  central  reserve  cities  was  unusually 
severe,  the  foreign  loans  negotiated  by  Wall  Street  bankers 
in  the  interest  of  stock  exchange  speculators  in  anticipa- 
tion of  grain  shipments  reached  unprecedente^d  dimen- 
sions, and  the  stock  market  went  wild  over  some  dubious 
industrials.  The  normal  limits  of  safety  were  ignored,  in- 
terest on  time  loans  rose  to  six  and  seven  per  cent,  and  banks 
and  trust  companies  extended  their  loans  until  the  re- 
serves were  depleted  below  the  legal  minimum  of  twenty- 
five  per  cent.  The  crash  came  in  October  ;  the  exposure 
of  personal  speculation  on  the  part  of  the  officers  of  several 
banks,  trust  companies,  and  insurance  companies,  and  the 
mismanagement  of  the  Metropolitan  Street  Railway  Com- 
pany, shook  pubUc  confidence  in  stock  investments  and  in 
the  integrity  of  all  credit  agencies.  A  run  upon  some 
prominent  banks  followed.  Even  solvent  institutions  were 
unable  to  meet  their  obligations  in  cash,  and  many  failures 
occurred.  The  Banks  of  England  and  Germany  raised 
their  discount  rate,  and  foreign  loans  fell  off.    The  extraor- 


Contemporary  Problems 


343 


1907. 


dinary  demand  for  money  forced  the  rate  of  interest  on 
demand  loans  up  to  40  per  cent,  50  per  cent,  and  even 
125  per  cent  during  the  few  desperate  days  of  panic. 

To  minimize  the  effect  of  the  crisis,  heroic  measures  Johnson, 
were  resorted  to.  The  United  States  Treasury  sent  P^^^of 
$25,000,000  to  New  York  to  deposit  with  the  national 
banks,  enabling  them  to  aid  the  jeopardized  institutions, 
and  certain  prominent  financiers  organized  a  money  pool 
out  of  which  immediate  obligations  might  be  met.  Gold 
was  imported  from  abroad,  and  clearing  house  certificates 
were  issued  to  the  amount  of  $50,000,000.  Such  mutual 
Hability  credentials  had  been  resorted  to  after  the  panic 
of  1857  and  during  the  Civil  War  and  in  every  subsequent 
crisis.  In  the  autumn  of  1907  this  substitute  for  currency 
was  utiUzed  not  only  in  New  York  but  in  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis  and  in  pracrically  all  of  the  reserve  cities.  In 
districts  remote  from  financial  centers,  business  houses 
and  employers  of  labor  offered  their  personal  checks  in 
Ueu  of  cash  payment. 

The  crisis  of  1907  was  unlike  all  previous  crises  in 
that  there  was  no  subsequent  depression.  Few  railroad 
corporadons  were  forced  into  bankruptcy,  and  the  pro- 
portion of  busmess  failures  was  not  so  high  as  after  the 
crisis  of  1893.  It  was  a  rich  man's  panic,  confined  to  the 
stock  market  and  credit  operations,  and  the  prosperity  of 
the  country  at  large  was  undiminished.  Farms,  mines, 
and  factories  continued  production  undeterred,  and  there 
was  no  appreciable  decline  in  prices,  wages,  land  values, 
or  railroad  earnings.    The  output  of  pig  iron,  a  sure  index 

Pig  Iron  Production  in  Thousand  Tons,  1897-1908. 


'?97 9,652 

^^98 11,773 

^899 13,620 

'900 13,789 

'90I 15,878 

^902 17^821 


1903  18,009 

1904  16,497 

^905 22,992 

^906 25,307 

^907 25,781 

^908 15,936 


11411 


Reynolds, 

Central 

Bank. 


Warburg, 
Central  Re- 
serve Bank. 


Sprague, 

Central 

Bank. 


344      htdustrial  History  of  the  United  Staies 

of  market  conditions,  reflected  the  advancing  tide  of  pros- 
perity. Corporation  securities  alone  shrank  in  value, 
but  here  the  apparent  loss  was  appalling,  amounting  to 
$10,000,000,000,  or  one  third  the  par  value  of  the  stock 
on  the  market.  Even  here,  the  recovery  was  rapid  beyond 
precedent,  and  within  a  year  after  the  crash  we  were  once 
more  in  the  heyday  of  prosperity,  and  speculators  and 
promoters  were  again  at  work  developing  every  known 
resource  of  the  country.  Wiseacres  shake  their  heads  and 
prophesy  that  we  are  riding  for  a  fall,  but  the  average 
business  man  is  confident  of  success. 

The  annual  stringency  is  due  to  no  lack  of  money. 
Our  present  per  capita  circulation  is  greater  than  that  of 
any  European  country  except  France.  In  1907  there 
was  gold  coin  in  the  United  States  to  the  amount  of 
$1,780,000,000,  and  of  this  all  but  $680,000,000  was  de- 
posited in  the  United  States  Treasury,  a  specie  reserve  that 
exceeded  the  combined  deposits  of  the  National  Banks 
of  England,  France,  and  Germany.  The  paper  money 
in  circulation  amounted  to  $2,332,000,000  practically  all 
of  which  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  the  mechanism  of  credit  was  inelastic  and  that 
some  more  effective  means  of  getting  hoarded  currency 
into  circulation  must  be  provided. 

In  1908  a  monetary  commission  was  appointed  with 
authority  to  investigate  banking  experience  at  home  and 
abroad,  and  report  a  scheme  of  reform.  Its  thirty  volume 
report,  published  in  19 10,  is  the  most  thoroughgoing  in- 
quiry into  the  history  and  practice  of  banking  yet  made. 
The  recommendation  for  a  central  bank,  after  the  foreign 
model,  to  serve  as  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment and  receive  Treasury  deposits,  and  to  act  as  a  com- 
mon reserve  for  all  national  banks,  is  now  before  the 
country.  Its  advocates  believe  that  such  an  institution 
should  be  authorized  to  regulate  the  volume  of  the  cur- 
rency and  to  control  credit  operations  by  adjusting  its 
rate  of  discoimt  on  loans  to  meet  a  financial  emergency. 

Meantime  public  discussion  has  centered   about  two 


Contemporary  Problems 


345 


other  proposed  reforms.  A  postal  savings  bank  had  been 
advocated  by  Postmaster  Meyer  and  indorsed  by  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  with  a  view  to  attracting  small  deposits 
from  wage  earners.  The  proposition  was  indorsed  in  the 
Republican  platform  of  1908,  and  embodied  in  an  enact- 
ment of  1910.  The  post-offices  of  the  country  afford  the 
most  convenient  possible  medium  for  savings  accounts 
and  the  security  offered  by  the  Federal  government  is 
absolute.  The  success  of  the  experiment  in  some  thirty 
different  nations  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  Australia,  and 
South  America  would  seem  to  indicate  that  this  oppor- 
tunity for  accumulation  would  be  especially  adapted  to 
our  immigrant  population  who,  in  default  of  any  better 
provision,  are  depositing  considerable  sums  with  the 
government  in  the  form  of  postal  orders,  but  the  scheme 

Foreign  Postal  Savings,  1907 


United  Kingdom 
Italy      . 
France  . 
Austria  . 
Russia   . 
Netherland 
Hungary 
Sweden 
Finland 
Japan     . 


Number  of 
Depositors 


10.692,555 

4,904,714 
4,794,874 
2,064,403 

1,788,990 

1,336,846 

648,652 

566,976 

60,007 

8,013,193 


Total 
Deposits 


$766,474,125 
273,702,695 

258,374,735 
44,269,223 

128,873,169 

58,489,392 
18,044,000 
13,582,491 
1,410,610 
46,275,301 


Per  Capita 
Deposits 


Statistical 
Abstract, 
1908,  727. 


$71.68 
55 -80 
53  89 

21.45 
72.04 

43-75 
27.82 

23.96 

25.51 

5-77 


was  strenuously  opposed  by  small  bankers  and  savings 
institutions  generally  on  the  ground  that  it  would  draw 
ott  custom  which  might  otherwise  accrue  to  them. 

The  panacea  proposed  by  the  Democratic  party  was  the 
guarantee  of  bank  deposits  on  the  Oklahoma  plan.  This 
new  and  courageous  commonwealth  enacted  a  law  (Decem- 
ber 17,   1907),  immediately  after  the  panic,  creating  a 


Webster, 
Depositors' 
Guarantee 
Law  of 
Oklahoma. 


II 


346      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

guarantee  fund  by  assessing  the  banks  chartered  by  the 
state  one  per  cent  on  average  deposits.     The  fund  was  to 
be  administered  by  a  State  Banking  Board  made  up  of 
the  governor,  lieutenant  governor,  president  of  board  of 
agriculture,  the  state  treasurer,  and  the  auditor,  and  was 
to  be  drawn  upon  from  time  to  time  to  remunerate  the 
depositors  of  bankrupt  institutions.     The  Board  was  un- 
fortunately given  no  adequate  powers  of  inspection  and 
regulation  such  as  are  exercised  by  the  Comptroller  of  the 
Currency  over  national  banks,  and  the  bankers  them- 
selves undertook  no  form  of  associated  control.     The  im- 
mediate effect  was  to  attract  to  banking  enterprises  a 
number  of  speculators  eager  to  take  advantage  of  re- 
newed public  confidence.     The  legal  minimum  for  capital 
required  was  $10,000,  men  of  little  experience  and  ques- 
tionable business  reputation  were  able  to  secure  charters, 
and  soon  every  village  in  the  state  had  one  or  more  banks. 
The  offer  of  high  rates  of  interest  brought  out  the  latent 
resources  of  a  prosperous  farming  community  and  deposits 
accumulated  mth  amazing  rapidity,  insomuch  that  several 
national  banks  surrendered  their  Federal  charters  in  order 
to  participate  in  the  access  of  business.     When  the  Inter- 
national State  Bank  of   Coalgate  failed,   the  depositors 
were  paid  in  full  out  of  the  guarantee  fund,  but  the  total 
liabiUties  were  inconsiderable.     When,  however,  the  (Co- 
lumbia Bank  and  Trust  Company  of  Oklahoma  City,  the 
largest  credit  agency  in  the  state,  closed  its  doors  (Sep- 
tember, 1909)  the  guarantee  system  was  put  to  a  severe 
strain.     With  a  capital  of  $200,000  this  institution  had 
acquired  deposits  amounting  to  $2,806,000,  besides  estab- 
Ushing  a  series  of  branch  banks.    Individual  depositors 
were  paid  in  full  and  trust  funds  were  relegated  to  their 
respective  bond  securities,  but  to  make  good  the  sums 
due  to  corresponding  banks,  a  special  assessment  of  three 
fourths  of  one  per  cent  was  necessary.     The  more  substan- 
tial bankers  challenged  the  ruling  of  the  bank  commissioner 
and  appealed  to  the  courts  to  determine  the  issue.    It  be- 
came evident  that  the  Oklahoma  law  did  not  afford  suffi- 


Contemporary  Problems 


347 


dent  safeguards  against  wildcat  banking,  and  the  plans 
for  guaranteed  deposits  adopted  in  1909  by  Kansas,  Ne- 
braska, South  Dakota,  and  Texas  were  more  conservative. 

Government  Control  of  Railroads 

The  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century  wit-  Griffin 
nessed  a  development  of   railway  transportation  unpar-  ListofRef- 
alleled  even  in  the  decade  following  on  the  Civil  War    ^^^"^^son 
The  industrial  depression  consequent  on  the  crisis  of  1873   ^^^''^'^^' 
once  past,   track  construction   was  prosecuted  with  re- 
doubled energy.     The  total  mUeage  in  operation  in  1908   Stat. 
IS  240,000  as  against  74,000  miles  in  1875.    The  capital  in-  ^''^^'■act 
vestment  represented  amounts  to  $16,000,000,000,  four  times  yei-^b^^' 
that  of  1875.     The  ratio  between  mileage  and  population  281. 
(27  to  10,000)  indicates  that  transportation  facHities  have 
more  than  kept  pace  \\ith  the  development  of  the  country. 

The  passenger  business  of  the  railroads  has  doubled  in 
the  past  twenty  years,  while  the  freight  traffic  has  in- 
creased 335.8  per  cent.  Passenger  rates  have  been  pretty 
steadily  maintained  at  an  average  of  two  cents  a  mile, 
but  freight  rates  have  fallen  from  one  and  one  fourth  cents 
per  ton  mile  in  1882  to  three  fourths  of  a  cent  in  1908. 
This  reduction  in  charges  has  been  usually  consistent  with 
inaintenance  of  dividends,  because,  the  roads  once  estab- 
lished and  initial  construction  expenses  covered,  traffic 
grows  more  rapidly  than  current  expenses. 

Charges  per  ton  mile  have  been  of  necessity  higher  on 
the  Western  and  Southern  roads,  especially  in  the  initial 
stages  of  their  development.  The  effects  of  the  devasta- 
tions of  the  Civil  War  are  evident  in  the  high  charges  on 
the  Richmond  and  Danville  line.  Profits  depend  on  the 
amount  and  character  of  the  freight  transported,  rather 
than  on  the  rates  secured,  and  the  volume  of  traffic  fluc- 
tuates with  general  industriar  conditions.  The  average 
rate  of  dividends  was  considered  low  in  1876,  but  it  fell 
to  two  per  cent  after  the  crisis  of  1884,  then  rose  slightly, 
only  to  fall  again  to  one  and  one  half  per  cent  with  the 


\ 


, 


Stat. 
Abstract 
U.S.,  1904, 
400-402. 


Stat. 
Abstract 
U.S.,  1909, 
287. 


White, 
Hist,  of 
Union 
Pacific. 

Davis, 
Union 
Pacific 
Railway. 

Annals  Am. 
Academy, 
8 :  259. 


348      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

industrial  depression  of  1893.  Since  1897  annual  dividends 
have  risen  steadily.  The  ratio  of  dividends  paid  to  total 
stock,  common  and  preferred,  was  5.25  in  1908. 

Average  Receipts  per  Ton  Mile  on  Leading  Railroads 


Contemporary  Problems 


349 


1870 

1880 

1890 

i8q8 
•  56 

1899 

1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 

Erie 

$1-33 

$.84 

$■64 

$.52 

$•56 

$•59 

$.64 

$.61 

C.  B.&Q.     .    .    . 

3.06 

1.28 

•95 

93 

.87 

.86 

•8S 

•77 

.87 

Santa  F^  .... 

323 

2-43 

1.23 

I  03 

1.02 

.98 

1. 01 

•99 

-95 

Richmond  &  Dan- 

vUle 

S-37 

2.16 

•77 

Southern  .... 

93 

.90 

•92 

•94 

•93 

95 

Union  Pacific     .     . 

4.26 

1.99 

1^38 

1.04 

I.02 

I -OS 

1.03 

.98 

97 

Average  for  all 

Roads    .... 

2.39 

1.16 

.80 

.62 

.62 

•63 

.63 

.64 

.66 

Average  Rate  (1876) 

of  Dividend 

« 

on  Stock    .    .    . 

3.03% 

2.8s% 

1.82% 

1.71% 

1.92% 

2.44% 

2.6s% 

"•97% 

3.03% 

The  crisis  of  1884  was  occasioned  by  over-investment 
in  railroads.  The  mileage  built  in  1882  and  1883  (18,314) 
exceeded  the  construction  of  1870  and  1871  by  five  thou- 
sand miles.  In  1884  and  1885  eighty-one  railway  corpora- 
tions holding  nineteen  thousand  miles  of  track  were  placed 
under  receivership,  and  thirty-seven  smaller  railroad 
properties  were  sold  under  foreclosure.  Transportation 
investments  had  no  part  in  bringing  on  the  panic  of  1893, 
but  the  railroads  suffered  severely  from  the  consequent 
depression.  Both  freight  and  passenger  traffic  fell  off, 
earnings  declined,  and  some  of  the  more  speculative  enter- 
prises were  unable  to  cover  operating  expenses  and  meet 
interest  payments  on  their  bonded  debt.  Creditors 
brought  suit,  and  the  roads,  one  after  another,  were  given 
over  to  receivers.  More  than  two  hundred  railway  com- 
panies, representing  fifty-six  thousand  miles  of  track  and 
one  fourth  of  the  railway  capital  of  the  country,  went 
into  the  hands  of  receivers  between  1892  and  i8g6.  Since 
1893  there  has  been  comparatively  little  increase  in  mileage 
and  the  energies  of  railway  financiers  have  been  devoted 
to  consolidation  and  to  development  of  the  existing  lines. 


The  rehabilitation  of  a  bankrupt  railroad  requires  time 
and  skill.     The   claims   of   bondholders  and   the  pubUc 
served  are  met  by  a  receivership  or  by  foreclosure  sale,  and 
reorganization  under  a  new  company  which  falls  heir  to 
the  obligations  as  well  as  to  the  property  of  the  suspended 
corporation.     The  processes  of  reorganization  have  given 
opportumty  for  financiers  with  reserve  capital  to  combine 
local    interests    into    a    comprehensive    railroad    system 
Branch    lines    have    been    absorbed,    terminal    faciUties 
merged,  independent  roads  bought  in,  to  the  end  that  a 
composite  trunk  line  might  dominate  the  transportation 
interests  of  a  great  section  of  the  country.     Thus  the 
Richmond  and  DanviUe  line  was  bought  in  at  foreclosure 
sale  by  J.  P.  Morgan  and  reorganized  as  the  Southern 
Railway,  and  the  Pennsylvania  Road  was  able  to  acquire 
much  more  effective  control  over  its  territory.     The  great 
transcontinental    lines  — the    Santa    Fe,    the    Northern 
Pacific,  and  the  Union  Pacific  —  were  most  heavily  in- 
volved because  traffic  across  the  Cordilleran  region  had 
not  as  yet  enabled  these  roads  to  meet  their  obUgations 
The  problem  in  the  case  of  the  Union  Pacific  was  to  reor- 
ganize in  such  fashion  as  to  enable  the  management  to 
meet  the  claims  of  bondholders  and  to  cancel  its  accumu- 
lated indebtedness  to  the  government.     This  was  finally 
accomplished  in  1898,  the  depreciated  property  was  bought 
m  by  a  group  of  New  York  financiers,  and  E.  H.  Harri- 
man  was  made  president  of  the  company.     He  was  known 
only  as  a  successful  stockbroker,  and  much  doubt  was 
expressed  as  to  his  concern  for  the  traflSc  interests  of  the 
road.     But   Mr.    Harriman   immediately   set   about   the 
reconstruction  of  the  system.     The  roadbed  was  improved 
branch  lines  were  built  to  tap  new  industrial  centers,  the 
roUing  stock  was  enlarged  and  brought  up  to  standard, 
and  serious  effort  was  made  to  meet  the  needs  of   the 
communities  served.    The  death  of   C.   P.   Huntington 
gave  opportunity  for  the  purchase  of  the  Central  and 
J50uthern  Pacific  and  this  was  quickly  seized,  funds  being 
secured  by  bonds   issued   against   Union   Pacific  stock 


Mitchell. 
Growth  of 
the  Union 
Pacific. 


Davis, 
Union 
Pacific 
Railway. 


I 


I  ■' 


lliflli 


Meyer, 
History  of 
Northern 
Securities 


Hatfield, 
Lectures  on 
Commerce, 
29-131. 


Rept.  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce   Com. 
on  Intercor- 
porate Rela- 
tionships of 
Railways  in 
the  United 
States,   1906. 


350      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

This  acquisition  extended  the  original  h'ne  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, gave  control  of  the  traffic  of  the  Pacific  slope  from 
Portland  to  I.os  Angeles,  and  ^stabUshed  connection  with 
El  Paso,  Houston,  and  New  Orleans.  Sul)sequent  pur- 
chases of  the  Oregon  Short  Line,  the  Chicago  and  Alton, 
and  the  Illinois  Central  were  negotiated  by  skillful  ma- 
nipulation of  the  stock  market,  funds  being  provided 
by  mortgaging  previous  holdings.  In  the  endeavor  to  get 
control  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington,  and  Quincy  and  so  to 
secure  a  Chicago  terminal,  Mr.  Harriman  came  into 
confhct  with  J.  J.  Hill,  the  president  of  the  Great  Northern, 
who  in  combination  with  J.  P.  Morgan  had  bought  a 
majority  stock  interest  in  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  and  the  Northern 
Pacific.  The  laws  of  the  states  of  Minnesota  and  Wash- 
ington, through  which  the  two  northernmost  of  the  trans- 
continental lines  pass,  forbid  the  merging  of  ownership  in 
parallel  and  competing  roads,  but  this  difficulty  Mr.  Hill 
hoped  to  surmount  by  the  organization  of  a  holding  cor- 
poration, the  Northern  Securities  Company.  The  legaUty 
of  the  device  was  contested  and  an  adverse  decision 
was  given  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
The  redistribution  of  stock  left  the  Northern  Pacific 
and  the  C.  B.  &  Q.  to  the  control  of  the  Great  Northern 
management,  but  Harriman  secured  direct  access  to 
Chicago  by  the  acquisition  of  the  Chicago  and  Alton 
Railroad. 

The  dissolution  of  the  Northern  Securities  Company 
has  prevented  any  farther  merging  of  parallel  lines,  but 
the  consolidation  of  connecting  roads  into  a  continuous 
system  and  the  leasing  of  branch  lines  greatly  conveniences 
shippers  and  the  traveling  public,  and  is  only  protested 
on  the  ground  that  so  vast  an  accumulation  of  wealth 
and  power  may  transcend  government  control.  Half  a 
dozen  great  railway  systems  now  control  the  traffic  of  the 
whole  country.  The  Vanderbilt  lines  dominate  the  trans- 
portation interests  of  the  Northeastern  staters.  The  fusion 
of  the  New  York  Central  with  the  Lake  Erie  and  Western, 
together  with  the  annexation  of  the  Michigan  Central 


Contemporary  Problems 


351 


i  \ 


111 


'I 


and  the  Michigan  Southern,  gives  this  combination  con- 
trol of  railway  connections  between  Chicago  and  New 
York,  while  a  ninety-nine  year  lease  of  the  Boston  and 
Albany  secures  the  most  direct  entry  to  the  northern  port. 
Twelve  thousand  mHes  of  track  and  seventy  thousand 
freight  cars  are  operated  under  this  management.     The 
Pennsylvania  system  monopolizes  all  the  transportation 
routes  between  Pittsburg  and  the  sea.     The  goods  to  be 
carried   are  exceptionally  bulky, —  coal   and   coke,   iron 
and  steel  manufactures.    One  fourth  the  freight  of  the 
United  States  is  transported  by  the  Pennsylvania,  and 
two  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  freight  cars  are  em- 
ployed in  its  service.     The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  and  the 
Long  Island  Railroads  have  been  brought  under  the  same 
system,  giving  a  total  mileage  of  thirteen  thousand.     The 
Gould  lines  form  the  main  arteries  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  traffic,  covering  the  territory  from  the  Gulf  to  the 
Great  Lakes,  from  the  Alleghany  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
with  a  network  of  transportation  agencies.     The  Southern 
Railway   management   has   consolidated   the   trunk   line 
from  Washington  to  Atlanta  with  the  Mobile  and  Ohio 
These  combined  lines,  with  their  numerous  branches,  tap 
every  important  industry  of  the  South,  conveying  cotton 
from  the  "  black  belt  "  directly  to  the  mills  of  the  "  fall 
hne,"  the  coal  and  the  iron  manufactures  of  the  southern 
Appalachians  to  the  factory  towns  and  to  the  ports.     The 
five   transcontinental   railroads   are   controlled   by   three 
interests.     The  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  Fe  was  suc- 
cessfully reorganized  after  the  collapse  of  the  original 
management    in    1893    and    maintains    an    independent 
status,  although  Harriman  was  admitted  to  its  board  of 
directors.     The  extension  of  this  line  to  San  Francisco 
establishes  direct  connection  between  Kansas  City  and 
the    most    important    ports    in    California.     The    Great 
Northern  operates  the  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  Mani- 
toba under  a  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  year  lease 
and  thus  lays  hold  on  the  wheat  lands  of  the  Dakotas 
and  the  Columbia  River  basin,  the  timber  ranges  of  the 


Spearman, 
Strategy  of 
Great  Rail- 
roads, 1-173 

Newcomb, 
Recent  Rail- 
road Com- 
binations. 

Newcomb, 
Concentra- 
tion of 
Railway 
Control. 


Griffin, 
List  of  Re- 
ferences on 
Railroads, 
57-68. 


Lanier, 
Harriman 
the  Absolute. 


Meyer, 
Railway 
Legislation, 
Pt.II.Ch.IV, 
Appendix  III. 

Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erences on 
Federal 
Control  of 
Commerce. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
IV,  i-ios, 
IX,  897-920 


Stickney, 
The  Rail- 
way Problem 


352      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Cascades.  A  working  agreement  with  the  Southern  Rail- 
way enables  the  Great  Northern  to  carry  cotton  and 
hardware  from  Alabama  to  Puget  Sound  without  trans- 
shipment, the  Chicago,  Burlington,  and  Quincy  serving  as 
connecting  link  in  this  direct  commerce  from  sea  to  sea. 
The  Harriman  system  covers  the  territory  between  the 
Missouri  River  and  the  Pacific  coast.  Eighteen  thousand 
miles  of  track  and  $350,000,000  of  capital  are  represented 
in  this  vast  consolidation. 

The  panic  of  1907  gave  new  opportunity  for  the  acqui- 
sition of  railway  properties,  and  Mr.  Harriman  utilized 
it  by  the  purchase  of  a  controlling  interest  in  the  Illinois 
Central  and  the  Erie  Railroad  and  secured  sufficient  stock 
in  the  New  York  Central,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  and  the 
Missouri  Pacific  to  entitle  him  to  representation  in  their 
management.  Since  the  death  of  this  "  wizard  of  finance," 
the  great  railway  system  ])uilt  up  by  his  genius  shows 
signs  of  disintegration.  The  most  important  of  recent 
developments  is  the  so-called  Hawley  system,  which  by 
means  of  the  Rock  Island  road  and  its  extensions  domi- 
nates the  traffic  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  from  the  Lakes 
to  the  Gulf. 

Rate  Regulation.  —  Charters  of  incorporation,  both 
state  and  national,  and  the  general  incorporation  laws 
adopted  in  lieu  of  special  charters  by  the  states,  have 
done  much  to  determine  the  relations  of  the  railroad  to 
the  community  it  is  intended  to  serve.  The  franchise  is 
usually  granted  for  a  limited  term  and  is  revocable  on 
failure  to  comply  with  its  specifications.  Provision  for 
the  security  and  comfort  of  passengers,  safety  appliances, 
in  the  interest  of  employees,  regulations  as  to  speed, 
grade  crossings,  whistles,  signals,  etc.,  the  convenience  of 
time  schedules,  the  adequacy  of  accommodations,  notably 
in  freight  car  service,  —  all  these  requirements  have  been 
successfully  enforced.  The  pooling  of  the  interests  of 
competing  roads  by  maintenance  of  uniform  rates,  par- 
celing of  the  territory  and  distribution  of  the  traffic  or 
division  of  earnings,  has  been  enjoined  by  both  state  and 


Contemporary  Problems 


353 


national  authorities,  but  without  much  avail.  The  limi- 
tation of  charges  on  passenger  and  freight  traffic,  the 
publicity  of  tariffs,  and  the  prevention  of  rebates  and  of 
discriminations  between  shippers  and  shipping  points  are 
matters  that  even  more  deeply  concern  the  public  welfare. 

The  fixing  of  rates  by  state  legislatures  was  discredited 
by  the  repeal  of  the  Granger  laws,  and  the  recent  experi- 
ence in  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  Minnesota,  and 
Missouri  has  been  even  more  discouraging.  Their'  laws 
prescribing  a  two  cents  per  mile  passenger  rate  were  set 
aside  by  the  courts  on  the  ground  that  the  rates  fixed 
were  so  low  as  to  be  confiscatory  and  that  the  penalties 
proposed  for  noncompliance  were  so  severe  as  to  amount 
to  intimidation.  In  lieu  of  direct  legislation,  some  thirty 
states  have  established  railway  commissions  authorized  to 
mvestigate  charges  of  discrimination  preferred  by  shippers 
and  to  secure  justice  as  to  rates,  classification  of  freight' 
distnbution  of  cars,  etc.  The  exceptions  to  this  general 
practice  are  significant.  Eight  CordiUeran  states  and  two 
territories  where  the  need  of  transportation  facilities  over- 
rides every  other  consideration,  and  five  Eastern  states 
where  the  railroad  interests  rule  the  legislatures,  have  as 
yet  provided  no  supervising  commission. 

State    authority,    whether    exercised    through   limiting 
statute   or   through   railway   commissions,    regulative   or 
advisory,  has  proved  quite  inadequate  to  the  control  of 
interstate  commerce,  notably  since  the  epoch  of  consolida- 
tion.    Federal   supervision   of   interstate   commerce   was 
provided  by  congressional  enactment  in  1887.     The  Cul- 
lom  law  required  full  publicity  of  rates  and  forbade  pool- 
ing as  well  as  discrimination  between  places,  persons,  and 
shipments,  so  far  as  interstate  traffic  is  concerned  ;  and  an 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  appointed  by  the  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  was  empowered  to  investigate 
all  charges  brought  before  it  as  to  preferential  tariffs,  re- 
bates, etc.,  and  to  denounce  an  unjust  rate.     The  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  securing  even-handed  justice  for  the 
snipper,  the  railroad,  and  the  general  pubUc  were  still 


Clark,  State 

Railway 

Commissions 


Dixon,  State 

Railroad 

Control, 

Pt.  n,  III. 


James,  The 

Railway 

Question. 


Meyer,  Regu 
lation  of 
Railway 
Rates, 
Ch.  IX,  X. 


Noyes, 
American 
Railroad 
Rates. 


2A 


it 


I  ill 


Ripley, 
Railway 
Problems, 
Ch.  XXIV. 

Meyer, 

Railway 

Legislation, 

Pt.  Ill, 

Appendix 

IV. 

Hadley, 
Workings  of 
the  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce Law. 

Rept.  Senate 
Com.  on 
Interstate 
Commerce, 
1905. 


Rept.  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce Com. 
on  Transpor- 
tation of 
Freights,  etc. 


Youngman, 
Economic 
Causes  of 
Great 
Fortunes. 


354      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

however,  many  and  great.  To  the  complexities  of  rate 
regulation  were  added  the  elusive  methods  of  discrimina- 
tion involved  in  terminal  facilities  and  pri\^ate-car  service, 
and  the  problem  has  seemed  to  transcend  the  wisdom  of 
state  and  federal  legislatures.  The  Hepburn  Amendment 
(1906)  empowered  the  Commission  to  declare  a  reason- 
able rate  that  should  be  binding  upon  the  transportation 
agency  until  set  aside  by  the  courts,  and  brought  express 
companies,  sleeping  cars,  and  refrigerator  cars  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act.  But  pool- 
ing was  extensively  practiced,  and  railway  combinations 
increased  their  territory  from  year  to  year.  Both  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  and  President  Taft  recommended  the 
abandonment  of  the  an ti -pooling  clause  of  the  law  of 
1887  and  the  substitution  of  a  check  on  the  acquisition  of 
stock  in  competing  systems.  Under  the  legislation  of  1910 
the  prohibition  of  traffic  agreements  is  maintained  and  the 
powers  of  the  Commission  are  enlarged.  Telephone  and 
telegraph  and  cable  comj^anies  are  added  to  th(^  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and  the  Com- 
mission is  authorized  to  investigate  the  justice  of  a  new 
tariff,  with  or  without  complaint  from  shippers,  the  opera- 
tion of  the  rates  in  question  being  suspended  during  the 
inquiry.  A  Commerce  Court  was  established  to  which  the 
decisions  of  the  Commission  might  be  appealed.  Not- 
withstanding persistent  legislation  and  litigation,  there  has 
been  an  effort  to  advance  freight  rates  in  the  past  few 
years,  occasioned,  say  the  railroad  men,  by  higher  cost 
of  construction,  rolling  stock,  labor,  etc. 

• 

Business  Monopolies 

Concentration  of  capital  in  the  hands  of  successful 
entrepreneurs  has  been  the  most  significant  tendency  in 
the  past  thirty  years  of  our  industrial  history.  The 
wealth  of  the  United  States,  according  to  the  census  of 
1900,  is  $94,300,000,000,  three  times  that  reported  in 
1870.    Per  capita  wealth   has  increased   from   $780   in 


Contemporary  Problems  355 

1870  to  $1235  in  1900,  but  riches  are  less  evenly  distributed 
than  before  the  Civil  War.    In  1890  there  were  in  the 
country  approximately  four  thousand  millionaires  and  mul- 
timillionaires, whose  property  aggregated  $12,000,000,000. 
At  that  time  the  rich  numbered  9  per  cent  of  the  popula- 
tion and  held  71  per  cent  of  the  wealth;    the  weU-to-do 
were  28  per  cent  of  the  population  and  owned  20    per 
cent  of  the  wealth;   the  poor  made  up  63  per  cent  of  the 
population,  but  could  claim  only  9  per  cent  of  the  wealth. 
It  IS  probable  that  the  inequaUty  is  still  greater  now. 
The   equalizing   mfluences   of   the   pioneer   period   have 
passed ;    the  pubHc  lands  that  may  be  cultivated  to  ad- 
vantage by  the  small  farmer  are  exhausted,  and  the  arid 
lands  of  the  West  can  be  developed  only  by  irrigation 
companies  commanding  large  capital.     The  self-employed 
artisan  is  at  a  hopeless  disadvantage  in  competition  with 
the  machine  product,  and  the  small  enterprise  is  being 
driven  from  the  field  by  large-scale  producers.     The  mass- 
mg  of  capital  and  concentration  of  industry  consequent 
on    the    introduction    of    machinery  is    evident    from 
statistics. 

The  merging  of  a  number  of  independent  concerns  into 
a  busmess  combination  has  been  the  especial  achievement 
of  the  entrepreneurs  of  the  present  generation.     The  ad- 
vantages accruing  from  wholesale  purchases  of  raw  material 
the  conversion  of  wastes  into  by-products,  and  the  non- 
competitive marketing  of  goods,  are  so  great  that  if  the 
management   be  wise   success   seems   inevitable.     When 
there  was  added  to  these  legitimate  profits  the  advantages 
tnat  the  large  shipper  might  secure  from  transportation 
agencies  in  the  way  of  rebates,  preferential  tariffs,  and 
termmal  facilities,  the  victory  of  the  great  combination, 
when   brought   into   competition   with   the   independent 
producer,  was  assured.    An  industrial  revolution,  compa- 
rable to  that  resulting  from  the  introduction  of  machinery 
has  been  accompUshed. 

^.^^'^°^M^^^^   ""^   ^^^   ^^^^^^^   combinations   was   the 
Standard  Oil  Company.    This  group  of  Cleveland  refiners 


Holmes, 
Concentra- 
tion of 
Wealth. 


West,  The 

Public 

Domain. 

President's 

Message, 

Cong. 

Record, 

XXXVI. 

Pt.  I,  n. 


Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  I-IV. 


u. 


„: 


I   'i': 


\\ 


It 


II 


356      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


U.S.  Census, 

IQOO,  IX, 
27. 


Cotton  Manufactures 

Year 

No.  OF  Es- 
tablishments 

Capital  per 

ESTAB. 

Spindles 
PER  Estab. 

Wage 

Earners 

PER  Estab. 

Product 
PER  Estab. 

1840 
1850 
i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 

1,240 
1,094 
1,091 
956 
756 
905 
973 

$    41,292 

69,745 
90,362 

147,182 

275,503 
391,183 
473,631 

1,842 

■       •       • 

4,799 
7,461 

14,092 

15,677 
19,536 

58 

84 
112 
142 
231 
242 
306 

$    37,379 

56,553 

106,033 

185,659 
254,087 
296,123 

342,041 

U.S.  Census, 
igoo,  X, 
344. 


U.S.  Census, 
IQOO,  IX, 
387,  412- 
421. 


Manufactures  01 

•  Agricultural  Implements 

. — > - 

N^n    mf 

No.  OF  Wage 

Value  of 

Yea» 

Establish- 
ments 

Capital  per 
Estab. 

Earners  per 
Estab. 

Product  per 
Estab. 

1850  .... 

1,333 

$2,674 

5 

S5,i33 

i860  .'  .     .     . 

2,116 

6,553 

8 

9,840 

1870  .... 

2,076 

16,780 

12 

25,080 

1880  .... 

1,943 

31,966 

20 

35,327 

1890  .... 

910 

159,686 

43 

89,306 

1900  .... 

715 

220,571 

65 

141,549 

Slaughtering  and  Meat  Packing 


Year 


1850 
i860 
1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 


No.  OF 
Establish- 
ments 


i8s 

259 
768 
872 
1,118 
921 


Capital  per 
Estab. 


18,824 
39,221 

31,543 
56,673 

104,551 
205,427 


No.  OF 

Wage 

Earners  per 

Estab. 


Value  of 

Product  per 

Estab. 


18 

$   64,766 

20 

113,675 

II 

98,732 

31 

348,122 

39 

502,336 

74 

852,945 

Contemporary  Problems  357 

undertook  to  secure,  not  only  the  advantages  of  whole- 
sale manufacture,  but  control  of  the  crude  oil  market  and 
of   the   transportation   facilities   as   well.     In    1870    the 
Standard  was  one  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  oil  refineries 
and  Its  product  was  only  four  per  cent  of  the  total  output' 
In  1877  It  controlled  95  per  cent  of  the  oil  refined  in  the 
Umted   States.    The  strenuous  opposition   of   crude   oil 
producers  and  independent  refiners  induced   in   1882   a 
completer  fusion  of  the  Standard  interests.     The  forty 
afliliated  companies  made  over  their  respective  properties 
to  a  body  of  trustees,  receiving  in  exchange  trust  certifi- 
cates pro  rata  for  the  stock  surrendered.     The  business 
was  thereafter  managed  by   the   nine  trustees,   and  aU 
possibHity  of  variations  in  policy  was  done  away.    The 
arrangement  was  entirely  successful  so  far  as  control  of 
the  industry  was  concerned.     Large-scale  production  ren- 
dered profitable  scientific  processes  of  manufacture    im- 
provement in   quality,   and   reductions   in   selling  price 
that  could  never  have  been  brought  about  by  the  hand- 
to-mouth  methods  in  vogue  in  the  oil  fields. 
^  The  success  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  suggested 
similar  combmations  in  other  lines  of  business.     The  sugar 
refiners,    the    whisky    distillers,    the    manufacturers    of 
tobacco,  salt,  steel,  tin  plate,  etc.,  pooled  their  interests 
in  more  or  less  successful   combinations.     Most  of  the 
industnes   requiring  large   capital   and   affording   oppor- 
tumty  for   monopoly  of  output  or  of  raw  material  at- 
tempted to  organize  on    a  noncompetitive   basis  during 
the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.     Some  three 
hundred  different  industries,  representing  a  capitalization 
ot   357,246,000,000,    were   so   organized   under    corporate 
charters  during  this  period.    Faith  in  the  efficiency  of 
combination  reached  its  chmax  in  the  years  from  1898  to 
1902,  when  industrial  aUiances  were  formed  with  small 
regard  for  legitimate  basis  of  profits.     Promoters   and 
speculators  took  advantage  of  the  craze  for  combination, 
and  foisted  all  manner  of  dubious  and  fraudulent  schemes 
upon  the  mvesting  public.     The  "  silent  panic  "  of  1903 


Montague, 
Rise  and 
Progress 
of  the 
Standard 
Oil  Com- 
pany. 

Tarbell,  The 
Standard 
Oil  Com- 
pany. 

Dodd, 
Trusts. 

Moody, 
Truth   about 
the  Trusts, 
109-132. 
Kept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
I,  93-173. 


Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 

ch.  I,  n. 

Kept.  In- 
dust.  Com. 
I.  59-253- 
Jenks, 
Michigan 
Salt  Ass'n. 

Jenks,  The 

Whisky 

Trust. 

Moody, 

Trusts, 

485-489. 

U.S.  Census. 

IQOO,  VII, 
Ixxv-lxxxi. 

Sammis, 
Industrial 
Combina- 
tion. 


fV\ 


I 


Lanier, 
Ore  Trust, 
etc. 

Edgerton, 
Wire  Nail 
Ass'n. 

Youngman, 

Tobacco 

Pools. 

Moody, 

Trusts, 

478-482. 

Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
Ch.  III. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 

I,  39-57,  74 
-93, 199-205 ; 
xm,lvui-lxiv. 


Wright, 
The  Amalga- 
mated Ass'n. 

Rept.  on 
the  Anthra- 
cite Coal 
Strike,  1902. 

Roberts, 

Anthracite 

Coal 

Industry, 

183-191. 

Rept.  on  the 
Beef  In- 
dustry, 
Ch.  IV. 

Rept.   In- 
dust.  Cora., 
I,  136-143- 


358      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

called  a  halt  in  many  adventurous  projects,  but  the  progress 
of  centralized  control  was  not  retarded. 

Meantime,  the  outside  public  has  found  reason  to  com- 
plain of  the  effects  of  industrial  monopoly.  Consumers 
protest  against  an  advance  in  prices  inconsistent  with 
diminished  cost  of  production  and  not  warranted  by  im- 
proved quality  of  goods.  The  whisky  trust,  the  plate 
glass  combination,  and  the  wire  nail  pool,  for  example, 
each  has  utilized  its  temporary  monopoly  of  the  market 
to  force  prices  far  beyond  their  normal  level.  The  pro- 
ducers of  raw  material,  the  crude  oil  men,  the  tobacco 
growers,  the  cattlemen,  etc.,  are  helpless  when  they  have 
no  choice  but  to  sell  to  the  agent  of  a  combination,  and 
they  denounce  the  monopoly  that  reduces  their  returns 
to  the  bare  cost  of  production.  Laborers,  brought  face 
to  face  with  a  combination,  can  have  no  recourse  to  an- 
other employer,  and  they  are  driven  to  organize  a  counter 
combination,  equally  monopolistic,  and  to  attempt  to  win 
fair  terms  by  an  artificial  shortage  in  the  labor  supply. 
The  strike  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  and 
Steel  Workers  against  the  United  States  Steel  Corpora- 
tion is  a  case  in  point.  The  endeavor  of  the  men  to 
secure  the  union  scale  of  wages  in  all  the  plants  represented 
in  the  combination  failed  because  they  had  a  strike  fund 
of  but  $32,000  to  oppose  to  the  resources  of  a  billion- 
dollar  trust.  The  Anthracite  Coal  Syndicate  has  been 
more  successfully  opposed  by  the  United  Mine  Workers, 
an  organized  body  of  145,000  men.  In  two  successive 
strikes  (1900  and  1902)  they  have  secured  an  advance 
of  wages  for  master  miners,  reduction  of  hours  for  day 
laborers,  and  the  practical  recognition  of  the  justice  of 
collective  bargaining. 

The  independent  producers,  moreover,  both  the  large 
concerns  that  refused  to  enter  the  combination  and  the 
small  industries  that  were  weak  enough  to  be  ignored, 
have  fared  badly  at  the  hands  of  the  monopoUes.  The 
power  to  regulate  prices  has  been  used  to  drive  com- 
petitors from  both  central  and  local  markets.     The  wreck 


Contemporary  Problems 


359 


of  such  enterprises  has  meant  the  closing  of  plants,  the 
disemployment  of  workmen,  and  the  waste  of  entrepreneur 
ability.  The  vehement  criticism  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  occasioned  by  the  unsparing  and  unscrupulous 
zeal  with  which  independent  refiners  were  cleared  from  the 
field,  provoked  the  endeavor  to  prevent  industrial  monopoly 
by  state  interference. 

Anti-trust  Legislation.  —  PubHc  protest  first  took  the 
form  of  prohibitive  legislation.     During  the  years  1889  to 
1894,    twenty-five    states    and    territories    enacted    laws 
making  the  trust  unlawful,  and  the  Federal  law  of  1891 
declared  "  every  contract,  combination  in  the  form  of  a 
trust  or  otherwise,  or  conspiracy,  in  restraint  of  trade  or 
commerce  among  the  several  states  "  illegal  and  its  pro- 
moters punishable  by  fine  or  imprisonment.     The  Standard 
Oil  Trust  dissolved  into  twenty  distinct  companies,  but 
smce  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  each  company  was  held  by 
one  or  another  of  the  original  trustees,  identity  of  interest 
was  perpetuated.     The  Sugar  Trust  reorganized  as  the 
American  Sugar  Refining  Company,  a  mammoth  corpora- 
tion of  $50,000,000,  which  bought  in  the  stock  of  the  con- 
stituent companies.     The  Whisky  Trust    incorporated  as 
the  Distilling  and  Cattlefeeding  Company,  a  single  cor- 
poration with  a  capital  of  $35,000,000,   etc.     In   every 
case,  combination  was  quite  as  effective  under  the  new 
form. 

The  general  endeavor  to  impose  stringent  requirements 
in  the  way  of  corporate  limitations  has  been  negatived  by 
the  mdulgent  policy  of  certain  states,  —  New  Jersey 
Delaware,  and  West  Virginia.  Light  incorporation  fees 
and  taxes,  the  absence  of  specifications  as  to  character  of 
busmess  or  amount  of  capital  stock,  the  secrecy  possible 
under  lax  administration,  have  rendered  these  three  states 
an  asylum  for  monopolistic  corporations.  Ninety-five  per 
cent  of  existing  corporations  hold  charters  in  one  or  an- 
other of  these  jurisdictions.  A  company  incorporated  in 
one  state  of  the  Union  is  at  liberty  to  carry  its  produce 
into  every  other  state ;   hence  nothing  short  of  a  Federal 


Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  IX. 


Lloyd, 
Wealth  vs. 
Common- 
wealth. 

Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  XI. 

Sherman, 
11,1071-1076. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 

n. 


Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
Ch.  V,  VI. 


Griffin, 
List  of  Ref- 
erences 
Relating  to 
Trusts. 

Montague, 
Trusts  of 
To-day, 
162-174. 

Jenks, 
The  Trust 
Problem, 
Ch.  XIII. 


■ 

I 


iliiii 


i    i    i 
I 


III 


Knox,  The 
Sherman 
Anti-trust 
Act, 


Whitney, 
The  Addy- 
ston  Pipe 
Co. 

Harlan, 
Decision 
of  the 
Supreme 
Court  of 
the  U.S. 


360      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

incorporation  law  can  prevent  injurious  combinations.  A 
bill  drafted  by  Attorney-General  Wickersham  and  sub- 
mitted to  Congress  in  1910  provides  that  companies  of 
more  than  $100,000  capitalization  may  incorporate  under 
Federal  law.  Advocates  of  the  measure  believe  that  the 
additional  prestige  accruing  from  a  congressional  charter 
and  the  immunity  from  state  regulation  will  induce  the 
well-established   industries   to    take   advantage    of    this 

privilege. 

The  effort  to  penaUze  restraint  of  trade  has  been  more 
successful.     Contracts  aiming  to  curtaU  production  or  to 
fix  buying  or  selling  prices  violate  the  common  law  and 
are   nonenforceable.     Statutes   defining  this   offense  and 
affixing  pains  and  penalties  have  been  passed  by  some 
thirty  states,  but  the  transaction  usually  transcends  state 
jurisdiction.    Under  the  Federal  Anti-trust  Act   (1890), 
"  every  person  who  shall  monopolize  or  attempt  to  monopo- 
lize ..  .  any  part  of  the  trade  or  commerce  among  the 
several  states  "  is  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  and 
liable  to  fine  or  imprisonment,  the  goods  in  course  of 
transportaUon  are  forfeited,  and  the  injured   party  may 
recover  threefold  damages  and  the  costs  of  suit.    The 
attorney-general  and  the  United  States  district  attorneys 
are  authorized  to  institute  proceedings  against  unlawful 
combinations  in  restraint  of  trade.    Most  notable  of  the 
anti-monopolistic  decisions  are  those  against  the  Addy- 
ston  Pipe  Company,  the  Northern  Securities  Company, 
the  beef   packers'   combination,   and   the  Standard  Oil 

Company. 

The  Bureau  of  Corporations,  established  (1903)  under 
the  United  States  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor, 
is  authorized  to  make  "  diUgent  investigation  into  the  or- 
ganization, conduct,  and  management  of  the  business  of  any 
corporation,  joint  stock  company,  or  corporate  combina- 
tion engaged  in  commerce  among  the  several  states  .  .  . 
and  to  gather  such  information  and  data  as  will  enable  the 
president  of  the  United  States  to  make  recommendations 
to  Congress  for  legislation  for  the  regulation  of  such  com- 


Contemporary  Problems 


361 


» 


merce."  The  immediate  outcomes  of  this  provision  are  the 
reports  on  the  beef  industry,  the  petroleum  industry,  the 
tobacco  combinations,  the  lumber  trade,  etc. 

The  Organization  of  Labor 

The  Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  founded 
in  1869  by  a  group  of  Philadelphia  garment  cutters  in  the 
hope  of  uniting  all  wage  earners  into  one  catholic  body, 
without  regard  to  occupation,  sex,  creed,  color,  or  nation- 
ality.   Not   until    1881,   however,   when   the   pledge   of 
secrecy  was  set  aside,  did  the  society  attain  national  im- 
portance.   The    membership    in    1881    was    500,000,    in 
1886,   1,200,000.     The  objects  proposed  by  this  all-em- 
bracing organization  were  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor  to  eight  per  day,  the  securing  of  protective  legisla- 
tion for  laborers  in  factory,  mine,   and  workshop,   the 
recognition  of  employers'  liability  for  accidents,  a  weekly 
pay  day,  the  making  of  wages  a  first  lien  on  product,  the 
arbitration  of  labor  disputes,  the  establishment  of  state 
and  national  labor  bureaus,  the  single  tax  on  land,  etc. 
The  degradation  of  American  workingmen  by  the  employ- 
ment of  convicts  in  competition  with  free  labor  and  by 
the  importation  of  laborers   under  wage  contract,   was 
protested  as  vigorously  as  was  the  slave  system  by  a 
former  generation  of  reformers.     In  its  motto,  "  An  injury 
to  one  is  the  concern  of  all,"  and  in  its  appeal  to  the 
ballot  for  redress  of  wrongs,  the  Knights  of  Labor  may 
be  compared  to  the  Workingmen's  party.     Their  organi- 
zation by  local,  district,  and  general  assemblies  was,  how- 
ever, more  effective  than  that  of  any  previous  labor  move- 
ment, since  it  admitted  representative  government.     The 
Knights  did    not  inaugurate  a  new  political  party,  but 
voted  with  Republicans  or  Democrats  or  Populists,  as 
men  and  measures  might  determine,  and  they  attained 
considerable  influence  with  legislative  bodies.     The  estab- 
lishment of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  and  of 
several  state  boards  of  arbitration,  legislation  restricting 


Wright, 
Hist.  Sketch 
of  the 
Knights  of 
Labor. 

Wright, 
Indust. 
Evol.  of 
U.S., 
Ch.  XIX. 

McNeill, 
Ch.  XV. 


Powderly, 
Ch.    IV,    V, 
VI,  XIII. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
III. 


Kirk, 

Knights  of 
Labor  and 
American 
Federation 
of  Labor. 


Levasseur, 
American 
Workman, 
197-203, 

Powderly, 
Ch.  VII. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VII,   Pt.  I. 
67-87. 


Il'lll 


I 


iul 


i 


I 


'■   1 


Rept.  Ford 
Com.  on 
Contract 
Labor,  1888. 


Taussig, 
The  South- 
western 
Strike. 

Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
VII,  Pt.  I, 
109-110. 


Wright, 
Indust. 
Evol.of  U.S., 
Ch.  XX. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VII, 

Pt.1, 108-109, 
Pt.  II, 
420-440. 


Levasseur, 
203-211. 


362      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  labor  of  women  and  children  and  requiring  biweekly 
payment  of  wages,  the  Federal  laws  prohibiting  the  im- 
portation of  contract  labor  and  limiting  the  immigration 
of  Chinese,  were  in  good  measure  due  to  the  agitation 
carried  on  by  the  Knights  of  Labor. 

While  their  characteristic  method  was  legislation,  the 
Knights  did  not  abjure  coercion.  Several  strikes  were 
conducted  to  a  successful  finish  by  aid  of  a  tax  levied  on 
the  whole  membership,  but  the  disastrous  strike  of  the 
employees  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  Railroad  (1886)  greatly 
discredited  the  order  in  the  eyes  of  the  public  and  gave 
rise  to  internal  dissensions  that  undermined  its  strength. 
In  1896  the  Knights  of  Labor  joined  in  the  agitation  for 
free  coinage  of  silver,  and  the  failure  of  the  Democratic 
party  farther  diminished  its  influence.  Its  membership 
has  declined  to  but  a  fraction  of  its  former  strength. 

The  American  Federation  of  Labor  originated  in  a  com- 
bination of  already  existing  unions,  such  as  the  Inter- 
national Typographical,  the  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  the 
Cigar  Makers,  the  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners, 
the  Brotherhood  of  Locomotive  Engineers,  etc.  In  1881, 
the  year  of  its  origin,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
represented  262,000  wage  earners;  in  1886  the  member- 
ship was  316,000;  in  1887,  600,000,  and  at  last  account 
the  membership  exceeded  1,500,000  men.  In  distinction 
from  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  American  Federation 
encourages  organization  along  trade  lines.  It  is  an 
affiliation  of  national  unions  in  which  each  society  retains 
full  autonomy.  The  annual  conventions  and  the  Execu- 
tive Council  make  general  regulations  and  recommenda- 
tions, but  these  have  no  binding  authority  over  the  in- 
dividual trade  organizations.  In  case  a  strike  is  approved 
by  the  Executive  Council,  financial  aid  may  be  ordered 
and  the  federated  unions  assessed  for  a  limited  period. 
The  possibility  that  aid  may  be  withheld  has  usually 
served  to  deter  the  unions  from  undertaking  unwarranted 
strikes.  The  influence  of  the  Executive  Council  and  of 
President  Gompers  has  been  generaUy  conservative,  and 


Contemporary  Problems 


363 


the  American  Federation  has  consistently  avoided  poHtical 
comphcations,  refusing  to  declare  for  or  against  socialism, 
smgle  tax,  free  coinage  of  silver,  etc.,  and  refraining  from 
any  attempt  to  dictate  to  its  members  politically.  The 
leaders  have  held  to  the  declared  purpose  of  the  organiza- 
tion to  render  employment  and  the  means  of  subsistence 
less  precanous  by  securing  to  the  toilers  an  equitable 
share  of  the  frmts  of  their  toil." 

Ur^Sd%tl\??r '•  ~  ^^'  "^  '^/^'^  undertakings  of  the  sixteenth 

Umted  States  Commissioner  of  Labor  was  the  collection  Annual 

of  accurate  ihformation  concerning  the  causes  and  results  ^'^\-  ^°°*- 

of  all  the  strikes  that  had  occurred  in  course  of  the  nine-  0^^, 

teenth  century.     The  report  of  1887,  extended  in  1804  Ch.  i. 

1901,  and  1906,  gives  full  statistical  data  for  the  vears  C^°^^'  Strike 

from  1881  to  date.  ^  Statistics. 


Strike  Statistics,  1881-1900 


Year 


Number 


Proportion 

Successful 


Year 


Number 


Proportion 
Successful 


Statistical 
Abstract, 
1909, 
241-247. 


,fi^      ?M      t^'^nty-five  year  period  there  were  reported  Levasseur. 
30,757  Stakes,  involving  6,728,048  employees,  doubtless  a  '32-237. 
much  larger  quota  than  any  previous  period  could  show, 
were  full  data  available.    It  is  significant  that  striked 


LI  JL 


U" 


Casson, 

Organized 

Self-help. 


Foster, 
Trade 
Union 
Ideals. 


Rept.  U.S. 
Strike  Com- 
mission, 1894. 

Wright, 
The  Chicago 
Strike. 


364      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

characterize  the  years  of  business  prosperity,  e.g.  1889- 
1 89 1  and  1 899-1 903.    The  larger  number  of  lockouts,  on   . 
the  other  hand,  took  place  m  years  of  depression,  e.g.  1886 
and  1893,  1903  and  1904. 

The  proposition  that  strikes  are  likely  to  succeed  on  a 
rising  and  fail  on  a  falling  market  may  be  demonstrated 
from  these  data.     The  proportion  of  successful  strikes  was 
57  per  cent  for  the  boom  period  1881-1883,  and  for  the 
highly  prosperous  epoch,  1896  1900,  the  successful  strikes 
were  60  per  cent  of  the  total.     In  the  years  of  depression 
following  on  financial  panic  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
notable  shrinkage  in  the  proportion  of  successes.     The 
figures  show,  farther,  an  apparent  increase  in  the  chances 
of  success.     Of  the   1500  strikes  recorded  for  the  first 
eighty  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  results  are 
known  for  1053.    Of  these,  30  per  cent  were  successful, 
15  per  cent  were  compromised,  and  55  per  cent  were  un- 
successful.    Of  3902  strikes  occurring  from  1881  to  1886, 
46.5  per  cent  were  successful,  13  per  cent  were  partially 
successful,  and  40  per  cent  failed.     For  the  twenty  years 
from  1881-1900,  51  per  cent  were  successful,  13  per  cent 
partially  so,  and  36  per  cent  failed.     Since  1901,  the  most 
prosperous  year  of  the  present  decade,  the  proportion  of 
success  has  declined. 

With  experience  and  the  sense  of  enlarged  responsibility, 
trade  imions  have  learned  caution,  and  a  well  disciplined 
union  will  undertake  a  strike  only  when  success  is  reason- 
ably sure.    The  money  cost  of  a  strike  is  usually  greater 
for  the  men  than  for  the  employer.     The  loss  in  wages  by 
strikes  for  the  period  1881-1Q00  was  $258,000,000,  more 
than  twice  the  losses  accruing  to  employers,  while  the 
assistance  rendered  by  other  labor  organizations  during 
the  same  period  amounted  to  $16,000,000.    The  trade 
union  with  no  strike  fund  has  slight  endurance.    The 
treasury  of  even  well-established  organizations  is  quickly 
exhausted,  and  contributions  from  outside  sympathizers 
are  not  a  permanent  reliance.     The  employer,  on  the 
other  hand,  has,  m  these  days  of  combination,  a  large 


Contemporary  Problems 


365 


reserve  capital ;  and,  while  he  will  avoid  a  strike  and  the 
losses  and  embarrassments  in  the  way  of  unfilled  orders 
etc.,  whenever  possible,  the  controversy,  once  brought  to 
an  issue,  will  be  fought  to  a  finish.  The  Pullman  strike 
demonstrated  that  employer  as  well  as  employee  wiU  take 
heavy  risks  m  defense  of  a  cherished  principle. 

Where  intelligence  and  fairness  characterize  both  em- 
ployer and  employed,  the  collective  bargain  is  advantageous 
to  both  parties.     Since  the  settlement  of  the  strike  of 
1897,  delegates  of  the  bituminous  coal  miners  have  met 
the  operators  in  annual  conference  for  the  adjustment  of 
a  wage  scale  affecting  four  hundred  thousand  men.     The 
anthracite  miners  attained  the  same  result  only  after  two 
bitterly   contested   strikes    and    the   intervention   of   an 
Arbitration  Commission  appointed  by  President  Roose- 
ve  t.    As  individuals  the  men  are  helpless,  and  they  can 
only  treat  on  even  terms  with  the  large-scale  employer 
when   umted   m   demanding   uniform    terms.     The   em- 
ployer, on  the  other  hand,  has  more  security  in  dealing 
with  an  organized  than  with  an  unorganized  body  of  men 
It  IS  essential  to  the  success  of  the  collective  bargain  that 
the  terms  of  employment  be  guaranteed  by  written  con- 
tract, and  that  breach  of  agreement  on  either  side  be 
made  punishable  by  fine.     The  proposition  to  increase  the 
responsibility  of  trade  unions  by  legal  incorporation  has 
been  urged  as  a  means  of  providing  for  the  enforcement 
ot  the  labor  contract. 

Criticism  of  Trade  Union  Methods.  -  Aside  from  the 
inevitable  antagonism  of  interest  between  employer  and 
employed  opposition  to  labor  organizadons  arises  from 
certain  of  the  means  used  in  prosecuting  their  ends  that 
bring  them  into  conflict  with  outside  parties.  Hostility 
fnr'  f  breakers,  for  example,  has  frequently  taken  the 
^oW.  Pf  ?"^^t^^^'  belligerent  picketing,  and  bodily 
to  K^  2^^""^  '^"'^''^^^  ^°  P^'^^"  ^^  property  serves 
«nHfi    ,'''''''''  "^^^^"^  condemnation  of  public  opinion 

thon-ri      t.^'^x:    ^'^^'  ^^'^  b^  ^^^t^^^d  by  police  au- 
tuonty,  and,  when  this  faUs,  by  the  intervention  of  state 


Schloss, 
Rept.  of 
Chicago 
Strike  Com- 
mission. 


George, 
Coal  Miners 
Strike,  1807 

Rept.   In- 

dust.  Com., 

VII. 

Pt.1, 106-108, 

Pt.  II, 

820-827. 

See  Index. 

Rept.  An- 
thracite Coal 
Strike    Com- 
mission, 1902. 


Brandeis 
et  al., 

Incorpora- 
tion of 
Trades 
Unions. 


Stimson, 
Handbook 
to  Labor 
Laws  of 
U.S., 
Ch.  VIII. 

MitcheU, 
Organized 
Labor, 
272-337- 


I 


I 


Levasseur, 
240-250. 

Taussig, 
The  Home- 
stead Strike. 

Bemis,  The 
Homestead 
Strike. 

Stimson, 
Ch.  IX. 

MitcheU, 
Organized 
Labor,  Ch. 

xxxvn 

Indust.  Com. 

xn, 

LXXXV-CV. 

Hall,  Sym- 
pathetic 
Strikes  and 
Lockouts. 


Levasseur, 

237-240, 

250-257- 


Yarros, 

Labor 

Questions' 

Newer 

Aspect. 


366      hidustrial  History  of  the  United  States 

and  even  national  troops;   but  breach  of  the  law  on  the 
part  of  employers  is  equally  to  be  condemned.    The  em- 
ployment of  Pinkerton  men  as  a  private  police  force  has 
been  declared  a  penal  offense  by  several  state  legislatures. 
The  boycotting  of  obdurate  employers,  "  scab  laborers," 
and  nonsympathizers  who  patronize   boycotted  concerns, 
is  the  frequent  resort  of  a  striking  union  hard  bestead. 
This  is  a  dangerous  weapon,  since  it  aUenates  pubUc  sym- 
pathy and  may  involve  the  union  in  legal  controversies. 
The  writ  of  injunction  has  been  utilized  by  employers  to 
forestall  attacks  on  person  or  property,  and  it  is  some- 
times the  only  means  of  maintaining  peace,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Coeur  d'Alene  miners'  strike ;   but   this  again  is  a 
weapon  that  is  Ukely  to  infringe  on  the  rights  of  citizens. 
The  sympathetic  strike  is  another  form  of  trade  union 
tactics,  the  fairness  of  which  is  hotly  disputed.    Without 
grievance  of  its  own  or  any  hope  of  gain,  a  labor  union 
may  order  a  strike  in  supjMjrt  of  the  contention  of  an 
allied  organization.    The  fact  that  this  may  be  an  act  of 
self-sacrifice  performed  in  the  interest  of  brotherhood  and 
the  general  welfare  of  labor  does  not  mitigate  the  injustice 
to  the  employer,  who  is  involved  in  a  controversy  in  which 
he  has  no  concern,  the  arbitrament  of  which  he  cannot 
influence.    Thus  the  American  Railway  Union  struck  in 
sympathy  with  the  PuUman  Car  Company's  employees 
and  involved  the  traffic  of  C^hicago  and  the  Middle  West 
in  a  disastrous  tie-up  ;  thus  the  Chicago  Teamsters'  Union 
refused  to  carry  goods  for  a  mercantile  establishment  in- 
volved in  a  Garment  Workers'  strike,  and,  by  consequence, 
for  the  business  houses  that  had  dealings  with  the  boy- 
cotted firm;    and  thus  the  organized  trades  of  Phila- 
delphia stopped  work  in  sympathy  with  the  striking  street 
car  employees.     The  failure  of  these  protracted  struggles 
must  tend  to  convince  labor  leaders  that  the  sympathetic 
strike  should  only  be  undertaken  as  a  last  resort. 

The  right  or  wrong  of  the  imion  or  closed  shop  has 
been  vigorously  debated  in  recent  years.  A  fully  estab- 
lished labor  organization  will  always  endeavor  to  exclude 


Contemporary  Problems 


367 


nonunion  men  from    the  shops  under  its  control.     This 
poUcy  is  essential  to  the  labor  monopoly  on  which  the 
union  depends  for  the  enforcement  of  the  uniform  wage 
and  other  regulations ;  but  it  is  protested  by  the  employer 
on  the  ground  that  the  management  of  his  business  is 
thereby  taken  out  of  his  hands.     Only  when,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  cigar  workers,  the  union  is  able  to  offer  as 
offset  a  trade  label  that, has  market  value,  is  the  point 
readily  conceded.    The  closed  shop  is  said  to  be  un- 
American  and  undemocratic,  in  that  it  forces  workmen  to 
enter  the  union  in  order  to  obtain  employment ;   but  the 
trade  unionist  holds  that  a  man  has  no  right  to  enjov  the 
advantages  in  the  way  of  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours 
secured  by  union  effort  who  wHl  contribute  nothing  to  the 
funds  and  fighting  strength  of  the  organization.     The 
sewing  trades  are  peculiarly  liable  to  incur  defeat  at  the 
hands  of  nonunion  labor,  because  theirs  is  an  unskilled 
trade,   perennially   overwhelmed   by  immigrant   laborers 
accustomed  to  a  low  standard  of  living  and  ready  to 
work  for  any  pay.     In  spite  of  the  persistent  endeavor  of 
many  years,  the  Garment  Workers  have  not  yet  attained 
general  victory  for  the  union  shop  and  the  union  label. 

Employers'  Associations.  —  An  ineAdtable  consequence 
of  the  more  efficient  organization  of  labor  has  been  the 
combination  of  employers  into  a  defensive  aUiance  The 
first  labor  union  attempted  in  Boston  brought  about 
(1825)  a  umon  of  Boston  merchants,  who  pledged  them- 
selves to  "  drive  the  shipwrights,  caulkers,  and  gravers  to 
submission  or  starvation,"  and  pledged  $20,000  as  a  fight- 
ing fund.  In  1832  one  hundred  and  six  merchants  and 
shipowners  of  Boston  agreed  to  "discountenance  and 
Check  the  unlawful  combination  formed  to  control  the 
freedom  of  individuals  as  to  the  hours  of  labor."  In  1872 
four  hundred  employers  of  New  York  City  organized  to 
resist  the  ten-hour  movement,  agreeing  to  contribute 
^1000  each  to  the  defense  fund,  and  in  1884  the  Master 
i^uilders  Association  of  New  York  was  organized  to  resist 
a  bricklayers'  strike.    A  dozen  or  more  national  associa- 


Commons 
et  al.,  Union 
Shop  Policy. 

Levasseur, 
215-217. 

White, 
The  Union 
Shop. 

Pfahler, 
Free  Shops. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VII,  Ft.  II, 
715-722. 
See  Index. 

Brooks, 
The  Trade 
Union 
Label. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VII,  Pt.  I. 
181-189, 
Index  to 
Pt.  II. 

Hutchinson, 
Shirt  Waist 
Makers' 
Strike. 

Rept.  In- 
dust. Com., 
VII,  Pt.  II, 
828-873. 
Andrews, 
Develop- 
ment of  Em- 
ployers' As- 
sociations. 

Luther, 
Workingmen 
of  New 
England,  7. 


!      :i'il 


II 

If 


Levasseur, 
217-224. 

Adams  and 

Sumner, 

Labor 

Problems, 

279-286. 


368      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

tions  of  the  employers  of  the  various  trades  were  set  on 
foot  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  in 
1903   several   national   associations   united   to   form   the 
Citizens  Industrial  Association  of  America,  which  comprises 
sixty  national  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-five  local 
organizations.     The  objects  of  this  federation  of  employers' 
unions,  as  published,  are  to  assist  the  constituted  authori- 
ties in  the  maintenance  of  i^rder,   to  promote  and  en- 
courage  harmonious    relations   between   employers    and 
employees  on  a  basis  of  equal  justice  to  both,  to  assist 
employers  in  their  efforts  to  maintain  industrial  peace, 
and  to  create  a  public  sentiment  in  opposition  to  all  forms 
of   violence,    coercion,    and    intimidation.     The    Citizens 
Industrial  Association  does  not  deny  the  beneficent  possi- 
bilities of  labor  organization  nor  the  advantages  of  arbitra- 
tion and  collective  bargaining,  but  proposes  to  combat 
the  abuses  of  trade  unionism  as  represented  in  arbitrary 
and    violent    action.     Reassuring    evidence    of    a    more 
rational  relation  between  labor  and  capital  may  be  found 
m  the  voluntary  advance  of  wages  recently  made  by  several 


Contemporary  Problems 


369 


92    '93   '94    '95    '96    '97    '98     99  1900  '01    '02    '03    '04   '05    ■06J07 


iELATIVi 
FIGURES 


^Relatlvt  Wage*  per  Hour 

_o_Relative  Hours  per  Week 
.__Relatlva  Number  of  enjployeee 


._^elat1v«  Retail  Prices  ol  Food  Wklflhiatf 
According  to  Average  Co«i8uniptloii 
lr»2567  WorklQafne"'*  Famllleo. 


eastern  railway  companies  and  by  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation. 

Immigration 

The  tide  of  immigration  has  been  steadily  rising  during 
the  period  under  review.  With  exception  of  the  epochs 
of  business  depression,  the  average  annual  immigration 
has  approximated  five  hundred  thousand  since  1880.  The 
number  of  arrivals  during  the  last  three  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century  amoimted  to  11,746,000,  a  sum  which 
exceeds  the  immigration  figures  for  the  fifty  years  previous. 
During  the  first  years  of  the  twentieth  century,  the  annual 
inflow  has  steadily  increased  from  448,000  in  1900  to 
1)285,349  —  the  high-water  mark  — in  1907-1908.  The 
depression  of  1907  reduced  the  number  of  immigrants  to 
782,870  for  1908,  751,786  for  1909. 

A  notable  change  in  the  character  of  the  immigrants 
has  taken  place  in  the  past  thirty  years.  Immigration 
from  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  Germany  has  fallen  off, 
that  from  Norway  and  Sweden  has  not  increased,  while 
the  surplus  population  of  eastern  Europe  has  been  mi- 
grating to  the  United  States  in  ever  increasing  numbers. 
The  peasants  of  Italy,  Greece,  Hungary,  Austria,  Rou- 
mania,  Russia,  Lithuania,  Armenia  —  unhappy  countries 
where  wages  are  low  and  taxes  high  and  where  oppor- 
tunities for  land  ownership  are  exhausted  —  throng  the 
steerage  quarters  of  the  transatlantic  steamers  and  the 
immigrant  stadons  of  the  United  States  ports.  The  im- 
migration from  southern  and  eastern  Europe  from  1901  to 
1908  inclusive  made  up  55  per  cent  of  the  total  European 
for  that  period. 

These  late  comers  bring  little  money  in  their  pockets, 
fully  half  of  them  are  illiterate,  and  the  majority  are  un- 
skilled laborers.  The  more  enterprising  find  their  way  to 
the  factories  of  New  England,  to  the  mines  and  iron  works 
of^  Pennsylvania  and  Colorado,  to  the  farms  and  flour 
mills  and  abattoirs  of  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley;   but 

2B 


Rept.  of 
the  Commis- 
sioner of 
Immigra- 
tion, 1909. 


Commons, 
Races  and 
Inmiigrants, 
Ch.  II. 


Wright, 
Influence 
of  Trade 
Unions  on 
Immigrants 


II  t 

1      III 
1  '■ 

Dubois, 
Negroes  in 
the  United 
States, 
6s-g8. 


370      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

the  Russian  Jews,  the  Syrians,  the  Italians,  and  the  Greeks 
settle  down  at  the  ports  of  entry  —  New  York  and  Boston 
—  or  are  dropped  at  the  railway  terminals,  —  Cleveland, 
Pittsburg,  Chicago,  and  St.  Louis.  Only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  European  immigrants  reach  the  Southern  states. 
For  example,  but  three  and  a  half  per  cent  of  those  com- 
ing in  1908-1909  were  destined  for  the  cotton  states,  in 
spite  of  a  systematic  effort  to  procure  Italian  labor.  The 
presence  of  four  miUion  negro  laborers  serves  to  discourage 

Immigrants  Admitted  to  United  States  During  Year  Endinq 

June  30,  1909 


Armenian  . 
Bohemian  . 
Bulgarian  . 
Chinese 
Croatian 
Dalmatian 
Dutch   .     . 
English 
Finnish 


3,108 
6,850 
6,214 
1,841 
20,181 
1,888 

'  8,114 
39,021 
11,687 


French  .  . 
German 

Greek  .  . 
Hebrew 

Irish      .  • 

Italian  .  . 

Japanese  . 
Lithuanian 
Magyar 


19423 
58,534 
20,262 

57,551 
31,185 

190,398 

3»275 
15,254 
28,704 


Mexican  .    . 

i5»59i 

PoUsh      .    . 

77,565 

Portuguese   . 

4,606 

Roumanian  . 

8,041 

Russian    .     . 

40,665 

Scandinavian 

34,996 

Scotch      .     . 

16,446 

Spanish    .     . 

5,820 

Syrians    .    . 

3.668 

Kelsey, 
Evolution 
of  Negro 
Labor. 


U.S.  Census, 

IQOO,  V, 

xcm-cxx. 

Statistical 
Atlas,  1900 
Plates  55,  62 

Mitchell, 
Organized 
Labor, 
Ch.  XXI. 


immigration,  and  the  freed  men  remain  the  labor  rehance 
of  the  South.     Whether  wage  earners,  tenants,  or  land 
owners,  they  are  producing  the  major  part  of  the  cotton, 
tobacco,  rice,  and  sugar  crops  to-day.    No  less  eager  than 
the  immigrants  to  possess  themselves  of  land,  the  negroes 
are  rapidly  becoming  a  race  of  peasant  farmers.     In  the 
forty  years  since  emancipation,  the  freedmen  of  Virgmia 
have  acquired  993,500  acres,  those  of  Georgia  1,075,000, 
and  one  fourth  the  colored  farmers  of  the  United  States 
now  own  the  land  they  till.     In  the  far  West,  Chinese 
and  Japanese  laborers  have  largely  preempted  the  field. 
Only  six  and  a  half  per  cent  of  the  Europ(;an  immigrants 
arriving  in  1908-1909  indicated  an  intention  of  going  out 
to  the  Cordilleran  or  Pacific  coast  states. 
Derived  for  the  most  part  from  lands  where  rates  of 


Slavic  Immigrants 


Contemporary  Problems 


371 


'  ) 


I'll! 
Hi'" 


wages  and  standards  of  living  are  much  less  than,  in  the 
United  States,  immigrants  come  into  direct  competition 
with  American  laborers,  for  machinery  and  differentiation 
of  mechanical  processes  render  it  easy  to  find  occupation. 
In  a  few  weeks  or  months  the  newcomer  has  acquired  as 
much  skill  as  the  old  hand,  and,  since  he  will  work  for  less 
money,  is  likely  to  supersede  him.  The  sweat  shops  of 
New  York,  Rochester,  and  Chicago  are  fiUed  with  Italians 
and  Russian  Jews ;  the  anthracite  coal  mines  are  worked 
by  Slavs  and  Italians;  Bohemians  are  tilling  the  corn 
lands  of  Kansas ;  Swedes  are  taking  up  the  wheat  farms 
of  Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas.  These  European  i^easants 
have  performed  the  tasks  that  were  too  heavy  or  un- 
pleasant or  low-paid  to  attract  American  workmen  ;  they 
have  built  our  railroads,  developed  our  mines,  manned 
our  coke  ovens  and  iron  foundries,  cleared  the  forests, 
tilled  the  prairies ;  they  have  contributed  enormously  to 
the  exploitadon  of  the  resources  of  the  country.  How  to 
leave  them  free  to  do  this,  without  entailing  some  degra- 
dation of  the  American  standard  of  living,  is  the  economic 
phase  of  the  immigration  problem. 

Legislation.  —  The  military  requisitions  of  the  Civil 
War  drained  the  country  of  laborers,  and  the  agricultural 
districts  needed  farm  hands,  the  factory  towns  operatives. 
Under  the  Act  to  Encourage  Immigration  approved 
July  4,  1864,  the  agents  of  American  employers  were 
allowed  to  engage  laborers  in  foreign  lands  and  to  arrange 
for  their  transportation  to  this  country,  and  the  contract 
pledging  wages  in  payment  of  charges  was  declared  valid 
in  law  and  therefore  enforcible.  The  act  was  repealed  in 
1868,  but  the  practice  of  importing  laborers  under  engage- 
ment to  work  at  specified  wages  continued.  Under  this 
arrangement,  thousands  of  Italians,  Poles,  and  Hungarians 
were  imported  for  work  on  the  railroads  and  in  the  mines 
and  factories  of  the  Northern  states.  Abortive  efforts 
were  even  made  to  ship  laborers  to  the  cotton  fields  of  the 
South. 

As  the  social,  political,  and  industrial  effects  of  unregu- 


Hall, 
Immigratioa 


Commons, 
Races  and 
Immigrants, 
Ch.  VI. 


Rept. 
Chandler 
Com.  on 
Immigration, 
5  2d  Cong., 
2d  Session, 
Rept.  No. 
1333- 


Whelpley, 
Problem 
of  the 
Immigrant. 


372      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 


;" 


Hi 


II 


III  '■'  'i! 

I  it  i 

■III  :tl: 


Smith, 
Emigration 
and  Immi- 
gration, 
Ch.  XII. 


Rept.  Ford 
Committee 
on  Contract 
Labor, 
Soth  Cong., 
I  St  Session, 
Misc.  Doc 
No.  572. 

Rept.Indust. 
Com.,  XV, 
647-671. 


Powderly, 
Ch.X. 

Rep.  Indu?t. 
Com.,  XV, 
430-446. 


Smith, 
Emigration 
and  Immi- 
gration, 
Ch.  XI. 


lated  immigration  became  apparent,  the  hospitable  atti- 
tude of  the  pubhc  was  converted  to  suspicion  and  alarm. 
The  Alien  Passengers  Act  of  1882  excluded  ''  convicts, 
lunatics,  idiots,  or  any  person  unable  to  care  for  himself 
or  herself  without  becoming  a  public  charge,"  and  did 
much  to  reUeve  our  prisons,  asylums,  and  poorhouses  of 
an  undue  burden.     It  did  not,  however,  attempt  to  prevent 
the  degradation  of  our  economic  standards  by  the  com- 
petition of  employees  engaged  abroad  to  work  at  European 
wages.    The  agitation  against  contract  lal)or  undertaken 
by  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  other  trade  unions  came  to 
a  head  in  1885.     The  Alien  Contract  Labor  Law  (1888) 
rendered  it  imlawful  for  an  employer  to  prepay  passage 
or  in  any  way  to  assist  or  encourage  the  immigration  of 
foreign  laborers  under  wage  contract.    The  enforcement 
of  this  law  has  been  attended  with  considerable  difficulty, 
but   some   seventeen   thousand   laborers   were   excluded 
between  1890  and  1909.     It  is  probable  that  rigid  inspec- 
tion of  immigrants  on  this  account  prevents  the  negotia- 
tion of  many  such  contracts,  but  it  does  not  materially 
check   the   im^portation   of   laborers   und(?r   the   padrone 
system.     Thousands  of  Italians,  Greeks,  and  Syrians  come 
to  this  country  under  binding  obligation  to  men  cf  their 
own  race,  who  prepay  their  passage  and,  under  various 
pretexts,  farm  out  their  labor,  collecting  a  percentage  of 
the  wages  paid.     This  form  of  peonage  is  liable  to  great 
abuses  which  are  difficult  to  discover  and  to  punish. 

On  the  Pacffic  coast  agitation  against  the  degrading 
influence  of  alien  labor  has  been  directed  against  Mexicans 
and  Orientals.  The  feeling  against  Sonorians  was  very 
strong  in  the  days  of  the  gold  rush,  and  they  were 
driven  from  the  diggings  by  the  foreigner's  Ucense  tax, 
reenforced  by  mob  violence.  The  220,000  Chinese 
laborers  admitted  to  California  between  1849  and  1875 
were  seldom  tolerated  in  the  mines,  but  they  found 
profitable  occupation  in  purveying  to  the  necessities  of 
the  gold  seekers.  Their  diligence,  thrift,  and  industrial 
skill  rendered  them  dangerous  competitors  in  field  or  work- 


RiCE  Fields  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
Chinese  laborers. 


ir     ii 


im 


Contemporary  Problems 


373 


shop,  and  although  they  usually  returned  to  China  with 
their  accumulated  earnings,  there  were  still,  in  1876,  one 
hundred  thousand  Celestials  in  CaUfornia.  The  Burlin- 
game  Treaty  (1868)  had  accorded  to  the  Chinese  people 
the  right  of  voluntary  immigration  to  the  United  States 
with  the  privileges  allowed  the  most  favored  nation,  a 
concession  essential  to  the  free  admission  of  Americans  to 
China.  This  policy  was  soon  challenged  by  the  labor 
party,  and  California  politicians  were  obliged  to  advocate 
the  exclusion  of  the  Oriental.  By  1880,  they  had  induced 
the  Federal  government  to  negotiate  a  new  treaty  stipu- 
lating the  right  to  "  regulate,  limit,  or  suspend  "  but  not 
to  prohibit  the  immigration  of  Chinese  laborers.  Pressure  Coolidge, 
was  then  brought  to  bear  upon  Congress  sufficient  to  Chinese 
secure  the  passage  of  the  Restriction  Law  (1882)  forbid-  ch"xi.^  ^^^ 
ding  for  a  period  of  ten  years  the  admission  of  Chinese 
laborers  "  skilled  and  unskilled,  and  those  engaged  in 
mining."  By  the  Geary  Act  (1892)  the  policy  of  exclu- 
sion was  adopted  for  a  second  ten-year  period,  and  the 
Chinese  already  in  the  country  were  required  to  register 
and  submit  to  the  Bertillon  record,  as  a  means  of  identifi- 
cation. In  1898  this  legislation  was  made  applicable  to 
Hawaii  and  the  Philippines,  and  these  new  dependencies 
were  deprived  of  their  most  reUable  labor  force. 

The  rigid  regulations  of  the  immigration  officials  render 
the  return  of  laborers  who  have  visited  China,  and  the  ad- 
mission of  the  exempted  classes,  travelers,  students,  and 
merchants,  extremely  difficult,  and  by  consequence,  a 
marked  anti- American  feeling  has  developed  in  China.  The 
Boxer  revolt  was  directed  against  all  foreigners,  but  the 
commercial  boycott  of  1903  was  declared  against  the 
United  States.  The  great  importing  companies  united  in 
an  effort  to  exclude  American  goods  from  Chinese  markets, 
and  there  was  a  marked  shrinkage  in  our  Oriental  trade. 
Sales  of  cotton  cloth  to  China,  our  principal  foreign  pur- 
chaser, shrank  from  $16,000,000  in  1902  to  $4,000,000  in 
1904,  and  our  total  exports  were  reduced  from  $29,722,000 
to  $12,862,000.     Some  conciliatory  modification  of  the 


Asiatic 
Immigration. 
Annals 
Am.  Acad. 
Soc.  and 
Pol.  Sci.,  34  : 
223-387. 


Rept.  In- 
dust.  Com., 
XV,  757. 


374      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Geary  Law  was  urged  by  the  textile  interests  of  the  Eastern 
and  Southern  states,  by  the  grain  dealers  of  Washington 
and  Oregon,  and  by  the  employers  of  labor  all  along  the 
Pacific  coast.  The  Exclusion  Law  was  reenacted  (1904) 
but  the  petty  persecutions  that  had  attended  its  enforce- 
ment were  abated. 

The  number  of  Chinamen  now  resident  in  the  United 
States  is  but  70,000,  and  their  place  in  the  labor  supply 
of  the  Pacific  coast  is  being  taken  by  immigrants  from 
Japan.  There  were  25,000  Japanese  in  the  United  States 
in  1900,  and  they  came  over  at  the  rate  of  15,000  a  year 
in  the  next  eight  years.  Originally  80  per  cent  of  these 
men  were  agricultural  laborers,  and  they  came  under  con- 
tract to  immigration  companies  made  responsible  by  the 
Mikado's  government  for  their  safe  transportation  and 
subsequent  welfare.  They  proved  thrifty  and  industrious 
but  were  accustomed  to  earning  one  tenth  of  the  wages 
paid  to  American  laborers  of  corresponding  skill.  Exclusion 
of  these  new  competitors  could  not  be  accomplished  by 
mere  Congressional  enactment,  for  the  Japanese  govern- 
ment is  stronger  than  the  Chinese  and  is  able  and  ready 
to  guarantee  to  its  citizens  the  liberties  allowed  to  any 
European  people.  By  the  treaty  negotiated  in  1907 
only  certain  classes  of  laborers  may  be  admitted  to  the 
continental  territory  of  the  United  States  and  these  must 
show  passports  from  the  Japanese  emigration  officials 
certifying  that  they  are  "former  residents,"  "parents, 
wives,  or  children  of  residents,"  or  "  settled  agriculturists," 
i.e.  already  in  possession  of  land  in  this  country. 


CHAPTER   XI 
CONSERVATION 

Exploitation  of  Natural  Resources 

Destruction  of  Game  and  of  Fur-bearing  Animals.  —  To 

European  settlers,  America  seemed  a  forbidding  wilderness. 
The  eastern  slope  of  the  Appalachians  and  the  Coastal 
Plain  were  heavily  wooded,  with  only  an  occasional  opening 
where  the  rivers  joined  the  sea.  The  dense  forest  growth 
afforded  refuge  to  wild  beasts  and  treacherous  savages, 
and  was  a  haunting  terror.  It  was  the  white  man's  func- 
tion to  clear  away  the  trees  and  reduce  the  wilderness  to 
civilization  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  every  colonist  set 
about  this  task  with  zeal.  The  trees  were  felled  remorse- 
lessly, while  the  trunks  and  underbrush  were  piled  in  heaps 
and  burned  as  useless  waste.  The  giants  of  the  forest  were 
girdled  and  left  to  die  standing.  The  attempt  of  the  home 
government  to  conserve  "  mast  trees  "  in  the  interest  of  the 
navy  was  one  of  the  grievances  of  the  colonists  against 
British  rule.  In  the  virgin  forests  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  the  right  of  a  free-born  American  to  destroy  the 
timber  was  exercised  without  stint,  and  the  neighborhood 
of  every  settlement  was  stripped  bare. 

Wild  animals  were  regarded  with  like  disfavor,  and 
slaughtered  ruthlessly.  Not  only  dangerous  beasts,  as 
wolves,  bears,  and  wildcats,  but  useful  animals  like  the  deer, 
the  moose,  the  elk,  were  driven  from  the  land.  Any  at- 
tempt to  preserve  the  game  savored  of  Old  World  privilege 
and  was  not  to  be  tolerated.  Birds  shared  the  fate  of 
quadrupeds.  Quail,  partridge,  wild  ducks,  wild  pigeon 
are  not  dependent  on  the  forest  for  sustenance  and  pro- 
tection, and  readily  adapt  their  habits  to  a  cultivated 

375 


Laut,  The 
World's  Fur 
Trade. 


I 


376      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

country ;  but  they  were  shot  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
with  no  regard  for  propagation .  The  wood  pigeon,  the  most 
delicious  of  game  birds,  was  killed  for  sport.  James  Flint, 
the  Scotchman,  who  went  down  the  Mississippi  in  1821, 
describes  the  process :  "  The  woods  abound  in  pigeons,  a 
small  species  of  fowl  which  migrates  to  the  southward  in 
winter,  and  returns  to  the  north  in  spring.  Their  numbers 
are  so  immense  that  they  sometimes  move  in  clouds,  up- 
wards of  a  mile  in  length.  At  the  time  when  they  are  pass- 
ing, the  people  have  good  sport  in  shooting  them,  as  one 
flock  frequently  succeeds  another  before  the  gun  can  be 
reloaded.  The  parts  of  the  woods  where  they  roost  are 
distinguished  by  the  trees  having  their  branches  broken  off, 
and  many  of  them  deadened  by  the  pressure  of  the  myriads 
that  Ught  upon  them." 

Fur-bearing  animals,  too,  have  been  rapidly  exterminated. 
The  beaver,  the  trapper's  most  profitable  prey,  was  driven 
from  one  hunting  ground  after  another,  until  the  stock 
was  practically  exhausted.  They  disappeared  from  the 
New  England  streams  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  from  the  Champiain  country  but  little  later. 
At  the  headwaters  of  the  Mississippi  and  tlie  Missouri 
where  beaver  dams  were  abundant  in  the  time  of  Pike  and 
Lewis  and  Clark,  the  hunting  grounds  were  exhausted  when 
settlers  arrived.  The  rivers  of  the  Cordilleran  area,  east 
and  west,  whose  beaver  dams  furnished  a  livelihood  to  the 
engages  of  the  American  Fur  Company,  were  trapped  out 
by  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  so  that  the  hunters 
abandoned  the  industry  and  took  to  farming.  The  re- 
maining isolated  breeding  grounds  have  been  curtailed  by 
lumbering,  sheep-grazing,  and  agriculture,  until  the  beaver 
is  a  curiosity  hardly  to  be  seen  outside  a  zoological  park. 
The  catch  of  1870  was  225,000,  that  of  1890,  82,000,  that 
of  1900,  8000.  In  marked  contrast  to  this  ])rodigal  de- 
struction, the  conservative  methods  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  have  maintained  the  beaver  grounds  of  (Cana- 
dian streams  at  full  bearing  capacity.  No  trapping  is  al- 
lowed during  the  spring  and  summer,  the  breeding  season. 


Conservation 


177 


the  females  are  never  killed,  and  cubs  under  one  year  are 
not  taken.  By  consequence  the  trade  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  is  greater  to-day  than  in  the  period  of  its 
monopoly. 

The  journals  of  the  explorers  give  marvelous  accounts 
of  the  big  game  that  roamed  the  western  plains  in  search  of 
water  and  pasturage.  In  the  vast  stretch  of  upland  be- 
tween the  Missouri  and  the  Brazos  rivers,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  buffalo,  deer,  and  antelope  throve  and  multi- 
pUed,  furnishing  easy  prey  to  the  trapper's  rifle.  To  the 
Indian  and  to  the  pioneer,  the  buffalo  was  the  most  useful 
of  animals,  furnishing  at  one  and  the  same  time  food,  cloth- 
ing, and  shelter.  The  meat  was  so  nourishing  that  it  was 
thought  to  have  curative  properties,  the  skin  of  the  calves 
and  cows  was  suitable  for  coats  and  blankets,  while  the 
tough  hide  of  the  bulls  made  admirable  tepees.  The 
resourceful  Joutel,  the  leader  of  La  Salle's  Gulf  coast 
colony,  used  them  to  cover  his  huts.  Explorer,  trapper, 
and  emigrant  alike  subsisted  on  the  buffalo,  but  the  animals 
were  slaughtered,  none  the  less,  with  reckless  glee.  Cows 
were  killed  by  preference  because  their  flesh  was  more 
tender  and  their  hides  more  pliable,  and  usually  nothing 
but  the  haunches  was  eaten,  the  carcass  being  left  for  the 
carrion  crow.  When  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  was  built 
across  the  prairie,  only  a  few  dwindUng  herds  remained, 
and  these  made  up  for  the  most  part  of  disconsolate  old 
bulls.  Tourists  were  accustomed  to  display  their  prowess 
by  firing  from  the  car  windows  at  a  chance  buffalo. 

The  sea  otter  has  almost  disappeared  from  the  Pacific   Fur  Seal 
coast,  the  catch  of  1905  being  but  230,  while  the  number  Ipvesu^- 
of  seal  is  rapidly  diminishing  in  Alaskan  waters.     In  1874 
the  seal  herd  was  estimated  at  5,000,000.     In  1898  the  esti- 
mate was  1,000,000,  and  in  1908,  180,000.    The  annual 
catch  of  100,000  has  dwindled  to  13,000. 

The  fur  trade  of  the  United  States  represents  a  greater 
money  value  than  ever  before,  because  prices  have  risen 
with  the  pressure  of  demand  upon  supply.  The  market 
value  of  beaver,  seal,  and  marten  have  made  these  furs 


|Mf 


National 
Conservation 
Commission, 
m,  381-386. 


'  W:      '  :i 


mi* 


Hi  11 


National 

Conservation 

Com., 

I.  51-73 ; 

II,  179-270, 

547-581. 


378      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

articles  of  luxury,  and  there  is  an  increasing  sale  for  squirrel, 
rabbit,  skunk,  muskrat,  red  fox,  and  pony  skins.  The 
trappers  of  these  inferior  furs  get  the  prices  that  used  to  be 
paid  for  beaver. 

The  fishing  grounds  of  the  Atlantic  coast  would  have 
been  exhausted  long  since  but  for  the  work  of  the  state  and 
national  fish  commissions.  Fish  hatcheries  are  main- 
tained at  convenient  stations,  and  the  rivers  are  restocked 
with  all  marketable  varieties  and  many  of  the  game  fish. 
Without  this  artificial  renev\'al,  the  supply  of  cod,  herring, 
shad,  salmon,  and  lobster,  would  have  b(jen  reduced  to 
the  vanishing  point ;  but  the  combined  efforts  of  state 
and  national  bureaus  can  hardly  keep  ])ace  with  the 
reckless  methods  of  the  fishermen.  Hook  and  line  have 
been  superseded  by  seines,  and  these  in  turn  by  weirs  and 
traps.  "  The  shad  fishery  was  undoubtedly  maintained 
for  many  years  by  hatching  operations  solely,  but  recently 
the  fishing  has  become  so  intense  that  most  of  the  spawn- 
ing run  of  fish  are  caught  before  they  reach  the  spawning 
grounds,  and  a  sufficient  supply  of  eggs  for  the  hatcheries 
cannot  be  obtained."  The  salmon,  the  royal  fish  so 
sedulously  guarded  in  old  Europe,  has  be('n  driven  from 
the  Atlantic  coast.  On  the  Pacific  coast  where,  within  the 
memory  of  white  men,  the  salmon  run  up  the  ri\'ers  was 
so  heavy  that  fish  were  crowded  out  of  the  w  ater  and  could 
be  caught  in  the  hand,  the  canning  industry  is  threatened 
with  extinction,  because  the  schools  fight  shy  of  the  fishing 
grounds.  The  Indian's  spear  has  been  supplanted  by 
wholesale  methods,  the  gill  net,  the  salmon  wheel,  and  the 
fish  trap.  The  annual  run  is  rapidly  diminishing,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  180,000,000  spawn  are  planted  each 
year  in  the  mountain  streams  by  the  states  immediately 
concerned,  and  as  many  more  by  the  national  government. 

Exhaustion  of  Forests.  —  The  commercial  methods  of  the 
great  lumber  companies  ha\  e  proven  even  more  destructive 
than  the  broad  ax  of  the  pioneer.  Wholesale  logging  and 
power  machinery  have  swept  large  areas  clean  of  the 
more  valuable  trees,  leaving  only  underbrush  and  scrub 


k 


Logging  in  the  Cascades. 


— -  — ^~~ 


i^ 


til 


P 


Conservation 


379 


oak.    The  best  timber  was  cut  away  from  New  England, 
New  York,  and  the  upper  Mississippi  VaUey  forty  years  ago! 
The  vast  forests  of  oak  and  pine  that  covered  the  Appalach- 
ian range  from  north  to  south,  and  the  hard  woods  of  the 
lowlands  have  largely  disappeared,  and  the  aftergrowth 
of  birch,  maple,  and  poplar  is  now  being  logged  down 
the  rivers.    These  inferior  woods  do  not  furnish  material 
for  the  building  of  houses  and  ships ;  they  are  manufactured 
mto  boxes,  furniture,  and  wood  pulp.     The  white  pine  of 
the  Great  Lake  region  is  being  exhausted,  and  the  output 
has  declined  70  per  cent  since  1890.     The  pine  barrens  of 
the  Gulf  states  are  now  being  invaded,  and  the  vast  forests 
that  sheltered  the  sugar  plantations  and   orange   groves 
from  frosty  "  northers  "  are  being  laid  low.     The  boxing 
of  the  long-leaf  pine  has  weakened  the  standing  trees,  and 
the  new  growth  has  been  burned  out  until  one  fifth  the 
forest  that  was  once  the  pride  of  the  Carolinas  is  gone,  and 
the  naval  stores  output  has  seriously  decHned.     To-day 
structural  timber,  cedar,  spruce,  and  fir,  are  being  shipped 
from  Oregon  to  Maine,  the  width  of  the  continent     The 
forests  of  the  Pacific  slope  have  been  depleted  with  reckless 
disregard  of  the  future.     Redwoods,  cedars,  and  Douglas 
tirs  that  have  spent  a  thousand  years  in  reaching  full  per- 
fection, are  feUed,  sawed  asunder,  yanked  to  the  sawmill 
by  donkey  engines,  and  sHced  into  planks,  boards,  and 
shingles  by  the  latest  labor-saving  devices.     Here  as  in  the 
Eastern  states  the  lumbermen  are  falling  back  on  inferior 
species,  and  converting  hemlock  into  tan  bark  and  wood 
pulp  by  means  of  portable  machinery. 

While  we  have  been  wasting  our  timber  resources  in  this 
reckless  fashion,  the  demand  for  wood  products  has 
steadily  increased.  In  spite  of  the  various  substitutes, - 
bnck,  cement  and  structural  iron,-the  consumption  of 
timber  has  grown  more  rapidly  than  population.  The 
result  is  a  marked  rise  in  price.  Since  1900  the  cost  of 
white  pine  lumber  has  increased  53  per  cent,  oak  54  per 
cent,  hemlock  55  per  cent,  Douglas  fir  63  per  cent,  yellow 
pine  6s  per  cent,  and  yellow  poplar  78  per  cent.     FuUy 


Defebaugh, 
History  of 
the  Lumber 
Industry,  I, 
ch.  26,  27,  28 


Bruncken, 
North 
American 
Forests. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  n, 
498-S12. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II,  748. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
390-469. 


till 


380      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

two  thirds  of  the  timber  felled  never  reaches  the  market. 
One  fourth  of  the  tree  is  lost  in  cutting  and  logging,  from 
one  third  to  two  thirds  is  thrown  aside  at  the  sawmill, 
while  one  third  of  the  mill  product  disappears  in  seasoning 
and  adapting  for  final  use.  Lumbering  may  fairly  be 
regarded  as  the  most  wasteful  of  trades. 

Fire  is  an  agent  of  destruction  even  more  to  be  feared 
than  the  lumberman,  and  more  than  one  third  of  our  forest 
wealth  has  gone  up  in  smoke.  The  Indians  set  fires  in 
order  to  drive  the  game  from  cover  or  to  outwit  their  ene- 
mies, and  they  are  perhaps  responsible  for  tlie  treeless  con- 
dition of  the  Great  Plains  and  the  deserts  of  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico.  But  civilized  man  has  exercised  an  even 
more  blighting  influence.  Sparks  from  railroad  locomo- 
tives and  unextinguished  camp  fires,  the  heedless  or  in- 
tentional conflagrations  started  in  brush  piles,  etc.,  have 
caused  incalculable  damage.  Since  1870,  when  data  were 
first  recorded,  the  annual  loss  from  fort'st  fires  has 
amounted  to  $50,000,000,  and  the  loss  in  human  life  ami 
in  other  property  is  always  grave. 

The  devastated  forest  lands  are  unfit  for  agriculture, 
and  the  wreckage  of  the  lumberman  serves  only  to  feed 
destructive  fires.  *'  It  is  stated  by  the  Forest  Warden  of 
Michigan  that  forest  fires  (notably  those  of  1871,  1881,  and 
1896)  have  done  more  to  hinder  settlement  in  the  northern 
counties  of  that  state  than  all  other  agencies  combined." 

There  are  in  the  United  States  something  like  65,000,000 
acres  of  forest  land  ruined  by  cutting  and  by  fire,  which  can 
only  be  restored  to  usefulness  by  replanting  the  trees.  Re- 
forestation is  a  costly  process,  especially  in  an  arid  climate. 
Two  thirds  of  the  western  slope  of  the  Sierras,  once  rich  in 
pine  and  Douglas  fir,  is  now  covered  with  a  worthless 
chaparral  growth.  When  the  new  growth  is  destroyed 
with  the  adult  trees,  the  burnt-over  area  cannot  be  restored 
to  productive  forest  for  many  years.  It  is  estimated  that 
20,000,000  acres  of  young  growth  is  destroyed  every  year, 
and  that  the  cost  of  replanting  this  spontaneous  crop  would 
amount  to  $200,000,000. 


i 


Waste  in  cutting:  Redwood  Stump  left  by  Lumbermen 
OF  Thirty  Years  ago;  White  Fir  and  Young  Sequoia 
IN  THE  Background.    Sierra  National  Forest 


The  Wastes  of  Logging  in  Pine  Forests  of  Michigan 


ttli^ 


"  BJi    ■."lii 


Conservation 


381 


The  indirect  losses  from  deforestation  are  even  more 
serious  than  the  direct.  There  is  deterioration  of  stock, 
birches,  soft  maples,  laurels,  and  chaparral  taking  the  place 
of  oak,  pine,  and  spruce  ;  there  is  inevitable  erosion  of  the  un- 
protected soil,  which  is  washed  away  by  the  heavy  rains, 
leaving  guUies  and  gorges  ;  there  is  serious  depletion  of  the 
soil,  the  vegetable  mold  being  burned  out  and  the  mineral 
elements  washed  away.  The  increasing  irregularity  of 
stream-flow  is  probably  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  cutting 
of  the  forests  on  the  higher  portions  of  drainage  basins. 
The  snows,  exposed  to  the  full  heat  of  the  sun,  melt  quickly, 
and  the  run-off  is  speedy  and  destructive.  As  a  conse- 
quence we  have  a  costly  alternation  of  spring  floods  and 
summer  droughts  and  a  marked  increase  in  the  number  and 
severity  of  snowsHdes  and  landslides.  Our  reckless  poUcy 
shows  in  shameful  contrast  to  that  of  Switzerland,  where 
"  ban"  forests  have  been  cultivated  for  centuries  as  a 
guard  against  avalanches. 

Our  reckless  assurance  is  not  confined  to  the  growing 
forests.  In  1907  buildings  worth  $250,000,000  were  de- 
stroyed by  fires,  four  fifths  of  which  were  preventable.  The 
Chicago  fire,  187 1,  cost  i^ 1 68,000,000  ;  the  Baltimore  fire, 
$50,000,000;  the  San  Francisco  fire,  $350,000,000.  We 
might  save  one  million  dollars  a  day  by  fireproof  construc- 
tion and  adequate  precautions,  but  because  of  our  careless 
habits  our  fire  departments  cost  ten  times  as  much  as  in 
European  cities,  and  our  fire  insurance  rates  are  twelve 
times  those  of  Great  Britain. 

Depletion  of  Pasturage.  —  The  pioneers  who  crossed  the 
Great  Plains  in  the  forties  found  them  a  bovine  paradise 
during  April  and  May,  when  the  vast  stretches  of  pasture, 
mingled  with  the  gayest  flowers,  made  a  pleasing  prospect 
for  man  and  beast.  The  great  watershed  rising  from  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Rockies  in  an  undulating  plateau 
abounded  in  native  grasses,  self-curing  and  highly  nutri- 
tious :  the  buffalo  grass  of  the  river  bottoms,  the  grama 
grasses  of  semi-arid  plains,  the  bunch-grass  of  the  mountain 
slopes.    Lieutenant  Pike  described  Texas  as  the  most  won- 


National 
Conservatior 
Com.,  II, 
126-141. 


1 

i  'v 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 
355-361. 

Brisbin, 

Beef 

Bonanza. 

Adams,  Log 
of  a  Cowboy. 


Rept.  Public 
Lands  Com- 
mission, 7904. 


382       Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

derful  pasture  land  in  the  world.  The  luxuriaat  herbage 
stood  as  high  as  a  horse's  belly  and  covered  the  level  plain  as 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach.  Herds  of  cattle  and  horses  fed  at 
large,  grew  fat,  and  multipUed,  coining  money  for  the  Span- 
ish rancheros,  who  had  nothing  to  do  but  corral  the  beasts 
for  an  occasional  matanza.  The  Louisiana  Purchase  gave 
us  300,000,000  acres  of  magnificent  pasturage,  free  to  all 
comers,  and  the  chance  of  making  a  fortune  at  public  ex- 
pense was  eagerly  seized.  Cattlemen  and  horsemen  drove 
their  stock  from  point  to  point,  seeking  out  watering  places 
and  the  best  grazing  ground.  Thus  was  the  wealth  of  the 
prairie  converted  into  marketable  crops,  —  draft  animals 
beef  cattle,  wool,  and  hides.  The  old  cattle  trail  ran  from 
Texas  to  Montana,  through  Indian  Territory,  Kansas,  and 
Nebraska,  and  before  the  days  of  the  railroad  unnumbered 
cattle  were  driven  along  this  herders'  highway  to  the  abat- 
toirs of  St.  Louis,  Omaha,  and  Chicago. 

Unfortunately  Uncle  Sam  imposed  no  regulations  upon 
the  cattle  barons,  and  under  their  ruthless  exploitation 
this  pubHc  pasture  land  has  been  rapidly  exhausted.     The 
most  fertile  regions  have  been  overstocked,  the  herbage 
trampled  down  and  eaten  to  the  roots,  and  the  water  holes 
ruined  by  careless  use,  until  the  old  proportion  of  two  cows 
to  an  acre  has  been  changed  to  two  acres  for  a  cow.     The 
homesteading  of  the  arable  area  has  curtailed  the  range 
until   the   Great   Plains   have    ceased    to   be  a  common 
pasture.    The  decade  between  1880  and  1890  witnessed 
the  heyday  of  the  cattle  industry  in  the  Southwest.     In 
1890  a  serious  drought  parched  the  pastures ;    thousands 
of   cattle   died,   and   many   ranches  were   ruined.    The 
Dingley  Tariff  raised  the  price  of  wool,  and  a  boom  in 
sheep-raising  followed.     Sheep  herders  invaded  the  cattle 
ranges,  and  the  pastures  were  eaten  to  the  bone.     The 
cattlemen  had  no  legal  title,  but  they  endeavored  to  pro- 
tect their  accustomed  grazing  grounds.     Disputes  grew 
heated,  and  the  controversy  came  to  blows.     Sheep  and 
cattle  wars  were  waged  in  Lincoln  County,  New  Mexico, 
in  the  Tonto  Basin,  Arizona,  and  in  southern  Wyoming. 


Conservation 


383 


The  narrowing  of  the  public  range  has  forced  the  cattle- 
men to  have  recourse  to  forage  crops,  alfalfa,  kaffir  corn, 
cottonseed  meal,  etc.  Beef  steers  are  now  shipped  from 
Texas  and  Montana  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  be  fattened 
for  the  market,  at  a  notable  advance  in  cost.  The  propor- 
tion of  food  animals  to  population  has  been  steadUy  declin- 
ing since  1890.  Indeed,  the  figures  for  the  past  seventy 
years  show  a  general  decrease. 

Number  Animals  per  Head  of  Population 


Bureau  of 
Corporations 
Rept.,  Ch  IV. 
on  Beef 
Industry. 

Bulletin  91, 
Dept.  of 

Agriculture, 
1909. 


Rate  of 

Ybar 

Cattt.f. 

Shkep 

Swine 

Decrease 

IN  Meat 

Supply 

per  cent 

1840 

i860 

1880 

1890 

.88 
.81 

•79 
.92 

113 
•71 
.84 
.65 

^•54 
1.07 

•99 
.92 

82.S 
72.4 

79-4 

1900 

.69 

•52 

.83 

593 

The  American  dietary  in  1840  was  one  half  meat ;  the  Bulletin  41, 
proportion  has  now  fallen  to  one  third.     Nevertheless  the  ^-  ^-  ^*''"- 
price  has  steadily  risen,  e.g.  that  of  fresh  beef  as  much  as  °^  ^^^'''■■ 
thirty  per  cent  in  the  past  twenty  years. 

The  Exhaustion  of  the  Soil  is  less  spectacular  but  no 
less  real  than  the  curtailment  of  our  pasture  and  forest 
areas.  A  shrewd  English  observer,  the  author  of  American 
Husbandry  (1765),  called  attention  to  the  reckless  ex- 
ploitation of  the  farm  lands  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and 
denounced  as  criminal  the  careless  methods  then  in  vogue. 
His  anticipations  have  long  since  been  realized.  Indian 
com  can  no  longer  be  grown  on  Cape  Cod,  the  hill  farms  of 
New  England  produce  only  hay,  the  tobacco  lands  of  tide- 
water Virginia  are  virtually  "dead,"  even  the  compara- 
tively new  lands  of  the  West,  the  wheatfields  of  California 
and  Minnesota,  show  a  declining  yield,  lands  that  formerly 
bore  50  bushels  per  acre  now  averaging  only  14  bushels. 


ii'iiili 


Roberts. 
Fertility  of 
the  Land, 
Ch.  I,  X,  XI. 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
I,  75-80 ; 

m,  3-108. 

National 
Conservation 
Com., 
I,  95- 1 10; 
III,  476-483. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 
426-446. 


Roberts, 
Anthracite 
Coal  In- 
dustry, Ch. 

I,  n,  ni,  IV. 


384      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  cause  is  not  far  to  seek.  Land  has  been  abundant 
and  cheap  in  this  country,  while  labor  in  the  agricultural 
regions  has  been  costly.  The  farmer  has  undertaken  to 
get  the  largest  return  per  unit  of  labor  instead  of  per  unit 
of  land.  This  means  extensi\'e  farming  with  labor-saving 
machinery,  reliance  upon  one  product,  and  neglect  of  crop 
rotation,  scientific  fertilization,  subsoil  plowing,  drain- 
age, irrigation.  The  waste  from  soil  erosion  is  stupendous. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  780,000,000  tons  of  silt  carried 
down  the  rivers  to  the  sea  reduces  the  productivity  of 
the  farms  every  year  by  the  amount  of  $500,000,000. 
That  this  depletion  is  unnecessary  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  Old  World  wheat  lands  bear  more  heavily  than  ours, 
e.g.  Great  Britain  32.2  bushels,  Germany  28  bushels, 
France  19.8  bushels,  Austria  17.8  bushels,  Hungary 
17.6  bushels,  while  our  own  average  is  13.8  bushels.  Only 
the  peasants  of  Russia  secure  a  lower  crop  return  than  the 
farmers  of  the  United  States. 

Exhaustion  of  Mineral  Resources  has  gone  on  apace. 
The  bog-iron  of  the  Atlantic  states  was  used  up  in  the  eight- 
eenth century.  The  resources  of  the  Appalachian  range 
are  reaching  the  point  where  mines  are  abandoned  because 
of  high-cost  production,  and  we  are  drawing  upon  the  seem- 
ingly inexhaustible  supplies  of  the  Lake  Superior  district. 
The  experts  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  esti- 
mate that  at  the  present  rate  of  output  all  the  high  grade 
ores  will  be  exhausted  within  thirty  years,  when  we  must 
have  recourse  to  inferior  or  less  accessible  deposits. 

Iron  is  a  raw  material  that  may  be  used  over  and  over 
again,  the  wrecks  of  the  scrap-heap  being  turned  into  the 
furnace ;  but  coal,  the  great  industrial  fuel,  is  consumed  once 
for  all,  and  there  is  no  means  of  restoring  the  supply.  The 
coal  mines  of  eastern  Virginia,  whose  development  Hamil- 
ton thought  wise  to  stimulate  by  an  import  duty,  are  long 
since  abandoned.  The  anthracite  coals  of  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania still  produce  100,000  tons  per  year,  but  at  steadily 
increasing  cost.  Shafts  must  be  sunk  deeper,  and  thinner 
veins  and  deposits  of  lower  grade  coal  be  utilized.     The  cost 


The  Waste  of  the  Mill  :  Old  Cutting  in  Black  Hills  National  Forest 


The  Wastes  of  Erosion  :  Iowa  Farm  Land,  worth  $200  per  Acre 


Conservation 


38s 


IN 
m 


iii 


IN    ' 


III 


■mm^ 


d'- 


of  hoisting,  pumping  and  ventilating  apparatus  increases 
as  operations  are  extended.     Hence  the  price  of  anthracite 
coal  is  advancing  year  by  year.     The  bituminous  mmes 
of  the  Middle  West  will  soon  reach  the  point  of  diminishing 
return,  and  we  must  then  have  resort  to  the  lignite  coals  of 
the  Dakotas  and  Montana.     Geologists  estimate  that  at  the 
present  rate  of  output  the  high  grade  coals  cannot  last  much 
more  than  a  hundred  years.     There  has  been  a  criminal 
waste  of  this  all-important  fuel.     The  waste  in  mining  is 
computed  at  sixty  per  cent,  but  this  is  reduced  to  forty 
per  cent  m  the  best  equipped  plants.     The  waste  in  con- 
sumption is  even  greater.     Steam  engines  utilize  about  eight 
per  cent  of  the  coal  they  burn,  not  ten  per  cent  of  the  fuel 
consumed  in  power  plants  is  converted  into  energy,  while 
the  electric  lighting  plants  utilize  less  than  one  hundredth 
part  of  the  coal  burned. 

The  by-products  of  the  bituminous  coal  fields,  petroleum 
and  natural  gas,  furnish  heat,  light,  and  energy  on  easier 
terms  than  carbon.     We  have  been  using  petroleum  for 
sixty  years,   and  have   already  consumed   1,800,000,000 
barrels.     At  the  present  rate  of  output  all  workable  wells 
will  be  exhausted  by  1950.     The  output  of  the  Appalachian 
area  is  rapidly  declining,  and  the  center  of  production  is 
shiftmg  toward  Oklahoma.    The  demand   for  kerosene 
lubricating  oils,  and  all  the  by-products  of  the  refinery,  is 
steadily  advancing,  while  the  use  of  crude  oil  as  fuel' in 
locomotives  and  steam  engines  has  just  begun. 

Natural  gas,  a  much  more  volatile  substance  than  petro- 
leum, is  the  most  convenient  of  all  fuels  for  domestic  pur- 
poses, being  piped  from  the  coal  fields  to  distant  cities  and 
readUy  distributed  to  consumers.  This  valuable  endow- 
ment we  have  thrown  away  wantonly,  like  boys  at  play. 
Men  drilling  for  oil  allowed  the  gas  to  escape,  as  an  obstacle 
to  production,  or  lighted  the  jet  and  watched  it  burn  it- 
self out.  The  actual  waste  is  estimated  at  1,000,000,000 
cubic  feet  a  day.  Preventive  legislation,  undertaken  in 
I'ennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  has  come  too  late  to  con- 
serve the  main  supply,  while  new  communities  have  not 

2C 


Campbell, 
Coal 

Resources 
of  Public 
Domain. 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
in,  446. 

Rept.  Bureau 
of  Corpo- 
rations, 
Petroleum 
Industry, 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
m,  465. 


1'  ^ 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
HI,  5S8. 


Bulletin 
U.S.  Com. 
of  Labor, 
The 

Phosphate 
Industry. 


National 
Conservation 
Com., 
m,  521. 


386      Industrial  History  of  the  United  Statis 

yet  learned  caution.  The  daily  waste  from  the  Caddo 
fields  of  Louisiana  is  sufficient  to  light  ten  cities  of  the  size 
of  Washington. 

The  extensive  beds  of  calcareous  deposit  in  South 
Carolina,  Florida,  Tennessee,  and  northern  Arkansas  have 
furnished  30,000,000  tons  of  phosi)hate  rock,  the  best- 
known  means  of  restoring  phosphoric  acid  to  our  depleted 
soils.  The  resources  of  South  Carolina  and  Florida  are 
approaching  the  point  of  exhaustion,  while  the  Tennessee 
phosphate  beds  are  being  monopohzed  by  mining  syndi- 
cates. The  conservation  of  this  important  fertilizer  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  our  agricultural  future.  Unless 
exportation  be  prevented,  low-grade  rock  utilized,  and  the 
new  deposits  just  discovered  on  the  public  domain  economi- 
cally administered,  our  phosphate  beds,  the  slow  accumu- 
lation of  geologic  ages,  will  be  exhaustt;d  within  twenty-five 
years. 

The  mining  of  the  precious  metals,  gold  and  silver,  cop- 
per, lead,  and  zinc,  was  quite  as  heedless  in  the  early  stages 
of  exploitation.  In  the  "  golden  age  "  of  California,  reck- 
less waste  characterized  the  diggings  from  north  to  south. 
While  the  washing  process  was  in  vogue,  fully  half  the  sur- 
face "  dirt  "  was  carried  down  the  rivers  to  the  sea.  The 
maximum  yield,  $65,000,000,  was  reached  mthin  five  years 
of  the  discovery,  and  the  output  from  the  diggings  dwindled 
thereafter.  Recourse  was  then  had  to  quartz  and  hydrau- 
lic mining,  the  stamp  mill  and  quicksilver  amalgamation. 
The  best  mines  of  Colorado  and  Nevada  are  going  through 
the  same  process  of  exhaustion.  The  Cripple  Creek  and 
Yukon  discoveries  and  the  cyanide  process  raised  our  gold 
production  to  $80,000,000  in  1902,  and  then  the  output 
declined.  The  dexelopment  of  new  possibilities  in  Cali- 
fornia by  the  dredging  of  river  wash,  the  opening  up  of  the 
latent  resources  of  Nevada,  and  the  rush  to  Cape  Nome 
raised  production  to  $94,000,000  in  i()o6,  but  it  is  probable 
that  another  point  of  maximum  outi)Ut  has  been  reached. 

The  Waste  of  Human  Life.  —  Even  more  criminal  than 
the  waste  of  material  resources  is  the  waste  of  human  energy. 


I 


^**^y\] 


m'  J 


'        ir-i 


The  Anthracite  Coal  Mixers 


II 


Conservation 


387 


The  exploitation  of  human  beings  in  factories  and  foundries, 
in  mines  and  in  the  railway  service,  is  no  less  ruthless  than 
the  destruction  of  our  forests.  Our  annual  casualty  list  is 
a  national  disgrace,  being  larger  in  proportion  to  the  num- 
ber of  employees  than  that  of  any  civilized  country.  In  the 
coal  mines,  for  example,  the  casualty  rate  is  3.5  per  thou- 
sand, and  this  among  able-bodied  men.  In  1908,  out  of 
500,000  employees,  3000  were  killed  and  7000  injured. 
When  one  considers  that  most  of  these  men  have  families  de- 
pendent upon  their  labor,  the  social  wreckage  seems  appall- 
ing. The  death  roll  increases  from  year  to  year,  because 
with  the  deepening  of  the  mines,  the  introduction  of  auto- 
matic picks,  undercutting  machines,  and  electric  transpor- 
tation, the  risks  are  increased.  This  is  a  dangerous  oc- 
cupation, and  accidents  arising  from  the  firing  of  coal  dust 
and  the  explosion  of  fire  damp  cannot  always  be  avoided ; 
but  many  frightful  disasters  are  attributable  to  the  crimi- 
nal carelessness  of  men  and  management.  Boys  under 
sixteen  should  not  be  employed  underground,  foreigners 
who  do  not  understand  the  English  language  should  not  be 
placed  in  stations  of  responsibility,  and  rigid  state  inspec- 
tion should  secure  that  all  possible  safety  devices  are  em- 
ployed. The  loss  of  Ufe  among  railway  employees  is  even 
more  terrible  than  in  the  mines,  and  here  again  casualties 
are  on  the  increase.  The  number  killed  in  1888,  the  first 
year  in  which  such  data  were  collected,  was  2451,  the 
number  injured  five  times  as  great.  In  1907  the  number  of 
employees  killed  was  4534,  and  the  number  injured,  87,644, 
while  the  total  casualty  list  for  employees,  passengers, 
and  other  persons  was  11,839  killed  and  111,016  injured. 
The  Cuban  War  was  not  so  destructive  of  life  and  health. 
Factories  and  workshops  are  contributing  their  quota  to 
this  industrial  waste.  The  poisonous  fumes  from  arsenic 
and  cyanide  compounds  produce  blood  poisoning  ;  the  ir- 
ritating dust  arising  where  metal  and  glass  are  wrought 
enter  the  throat  and  lungs  and  generate  tuberculosis  and 
pneumonia,  and  the  quarries  are  no  less  injurious.  The 
mortality  among  stone  and  marble  workers  is  six  times 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 
620-662. 


Rept.  Inter- 
state Com- 
merce 
Com.,  1909. 


Census,  iqoo, 
Manufac- 
tures, rV,  725. 


388      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

that  prevailing  among  professional  men.  Lead  poisoning 
is  another  industrial  disease  which  afilicts  painters  and 
typesetters  and  paint-mill  employees.  Dangerous  ma- 
chinery adds  thousands  each  year  to  the  already  long 
list  of  casualties,  in  which  the  young  and  venturesome 
bear  the  larger  proportion.  An  expert  in  vital  statistics 
has  recently  estimated  the  industrial  loss  accruing  from 
these  several  causes  at  $854,250,000  per  year,  of  which 
half  is  represented  in  wages  and  an  additional  third  in 
expenditure  for  illness,  items  which  are  borne  by  the 
injured  employee. 

Utilization  of  Wastes  in  Manufacture.  —  It  is  only  when 
man  is  deaUng  with  nature  at  first  hand  that  he  dares  to  be 
prodigal.     The  materials  into  which  he  has  put  labor  and 
thought  acquire  a  market  value  and  are  consec^uently  used 
with  care  ;  in  the  processes  of  manufacture,  therefore,  waste 
has  been  largely  eUminated.     The  refuse  of  the  oil-refinery 
is  converted  into  valuable  by-products,  perfumes,  and  fla- 
voring extracts,  and  mineral  oils.    The  slag  of  the  iron  fur- 
naces is  utilized  as  ballast  in  railroad  construction  or  con- 
verted into  paving  stones  and  slag  brick.     The  low  grade 
coal,  heaped  into  "  culmbanks  "  by  the  careless  operations 
of    the    nineteenth  century,  is    now    being  overhauled/ 
screened,  and  marketed  as  chestnut,  buckwheat,  birdseye, 
and  other  fine  grained  varieties,  which  prove  far  better  than 
the  coarser  grades  for  the  automatic  stokers  of  the  great 
power  plants.     The  by-products  of    the  slaughterhouse 
fully  cover  the  cost  of  converting  the  animals  into  food. 
The  blood  is  transformed  into  albumen  for  bleaching,  the 
offal  into  fertilizers,  the  hoofs  into  glue,  the  horns  into 
buttons,  knife  handles,  etc.,  the  bones  become  ivory  and 
gelatine,  the  hair  is  made  up  into  mattresses  and  felting, 
the  various  fats  into  butterine,  glycerine,  etc.     Pepsin  and 
other  medicines  are  distilled  from  divers  glands,  and  a  nerve 
specific  from  the  gray  brain  matter.     Cotton  seed,  the 
waste  of  the  gin,  was  cast  into  the  gutters  and  left  to  rot 
and  become  a  public  nuisance  in  the  ante-beDum  days  of  the 
South.    Yankee  ingenuity  has  found  a  use  for  this  refuse. 


■i  ^! 


ii:». , 


Conservation 


389 


By  1870  the  crushed  seed  was  used  as  a  fertilizer,  by  1880 
as  a  cattle  food,  and  by  1890  it  was  transformed  into  articles 
of  human  diet.     To-day  no  part  of  the  seed  is  wasted.     The 
lint  is  ginned  off  and  made  up  into  felt,  the  hulls  are  crushed 
into  mast  and  may  yet  be  converted  into  paper.     The 
kernel  is  ground  as  fine  as  flour,  the  oil  pressed  out,  and  the 
meal  cake  remaining  sold  for  cattle  feed.     Cotton-seed  oU, 
refined,  becomes  cottolene,  lubricating  oil,  and  low  grade 
olive  oil.     Even  the  wastes  of  the  forests  are  utilized,  once 
they  get  to  the  mill.     Sawdust,  being  elastic,  absorptive, 
and  nonconducting,  makes  the  best  kind  of  packing  and 
bedding  material,  and  it  is  beginning  to  be  worked  over 
into  flooring  tiles  and  porous  brick,  briquettes  and  bois  durci, 
after  the  European  example.     The  cuttings  that  cannot 
be  used  as  timber  are  wrought  into  a  number  of  valuable 
by-products.     Beech,  birch,  and  maple  are  converted  into 
oxalic  and  acetic  acid  and  wood  naphtha,  the  stumps  and 
branches  of  yellow  pine  into  turpentine,  oak  slabs  into 
charcoal,  the  bark  of  oak  and  hemlock  are  sent  to  the  tan- 
neries, while  spruce,  poplar,  and  Cottonwood  furnish  wood 
pulp  for  the  paper  mill.     Even  pine  needles  may  be  distilled 
into  camphor. 


Preventive  Legislation 

State  and  national  legislatures  have  done  much  to  pre- 
vent the  unnecessary  destruction  of  our  natural  resources. 
Game  laws,  though  enforced  against  persistent  opposition, 
secure  a  closed  season  sufficient  in  length  to  protect  birds 
and  animals  during  the  breeding  season  and  to  prevent 
the  annual  "  kill"  exceeding  the  annual  increase.  Hunting 
and  fishing  licenses  impose  regulations  on  the  methods  of 
slaughter,  and  usuaUy  bring  in  a  revenue  from  license  fees 
and  fines  large  enough  to  maintain  the  game  wardens.  In 
North  Carolina  and  California  the  leasing  of  game  pre- 
serves to  private  persons  and  hunting  clubs  is  an  accepted 
policy.  The  seal  fisheries  are  guarded  by  an  international  j^^^^^ 
agreement  (1896)  between  the  United  States,  Great  Brit-  tion,  1899. 


Ww 


Whittelsey, 
Labor  Legis- 
lation in 
Massa- 
chusetts. 


Coman, 
Supreme 
Court 
Decision  in 
Oregon  Case. 


390      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

ain,  and  Russia,  in  accordance  with  which  pelagic  sealing 
is  proscribed  the  year  round  within  sixty  miles  of  the  Pribi- 
loff  Islands,  and  throughout  the  Behring  Sea  during  the 
breeding  season.  Licensed  vessels  only  are  i)ermitted  to 
follow  the  seals  into  deep  water,  and  in  the  land-kill  fire- 
arms and  explosives  are  forbidden.  The  chief  violators 
of  this  humane  code  are  the  Japanese  sealers,  who  are 
unfortunately  not  bound  by  the  treaty. 

Legislation  to  prevent  the  waste  of  human  life  has  de- 
veloped very  slowly  in  the  United  States.  Massachusetts 
took  the  lead  in  1874,  with  a  law  imposing  limitations  upon 
the  employment  of  children.  The  present  labor  code  of 
that  progressive  commonwealth  forbids  the  employment 
of  children  under  fourteen  years,  proscribes  night  work 
for  young  persons  and  women,  and  enforces  a  fifty-eight 
hour  week  in  all  factories  and  workshops.  A  battle  royal 
has  been  fought  over  the  legaUty  of  limiting  the  working 
day  for  women,  on  the  ground  that  any  interference  with 
the  terms  of  employment  would  deprive  these  laborers  of 
the  freedom  of  contract.  The  contention  has  been  recently 
overruled  by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Oregon 
case  (1908).  In  upholding  the  provision  for  a  nine-hour  day 
for  the  woman  wage  earner.  Justice  Brewer  gave  the  opinion 
that  "  the  limitations  which  this  statute  jDlaces  on  her 
contractual  powers,  upon  her  right  to  agree  with  her  em- 
ployer as  to  the  time  she  shall  labor,  are  not  imposed  solely 
for  her  benefit,  but  also  largely  for  the  benefit  of  all.  .  .  . 
Since  healthy  mothers  are  essential  to  vigorous  offspring, 
the  physical  well-being  of  women  becomes  an  object  of 
public  interest  and  care,  in  order  to  preserve  the  health  and 
vigor  of  the  race."  The  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois  has  re- 
cently sustained  a  nine-hour  law  for  women  on  much  the 
same  grounds,  and  fully  half  the  states  of  the  Union  have 
imposed  similar  restrictions  upon  the  amount  of  physical 
exertion  that  may  be  required  of  female  laborers. 

In  employments  where  special  risks  are  encountered  or 
heavy  responsibiUties  imposed,  restrictions  on  the  working 
day  for  men  have  been  enacted.     Utah  and  seven  other 


Conservatio7i 


391 


Rocky  Mountain  states  prescribe  an  eight-hour  day  for 
niiners,  while  the  federal  law  of  1907  determines  the  con- 
ditions under  which  railway  employees  of  the  interstate 
roads  may  perform  their  responsible  tasks.  A  nine-hour 
shift  for  telephone  and  telegraph  operators,  a  sixteen-hour 
limit  for  train  employees,  followed  by  a  ten  hours'  interval 
for  rest,  together  with  safety  devices  and  uniform  brak- 
ing and  switching  appHances,  render  the  Esch  Law  a 
highly  important  safeguard  not  only  for  passengers  but  for 
the  men  who  run  the  trains. 

The  liabihty  of  employers  for  accidents  due  to  unguarded 
machinery  and  the  negUgence  of  fellow  employees  was  recog- 
mzed  in  the  federal  law  of  1907,  so  far  as  interstate  carriers 
are  concerned.     Few  of  the  states  have  gone  so  far,  and  we 
are  stiU  shamefully  behind  the  Enghsh  and  German  re- 
quirements.    The  injured  workman  gets  no  compensation 
If  contributory  neghgence  can  be  proven,  and  the  scale  of 
damages  is  not  determined  by  the  law.     The  operation  of 
the  penalty  is  not  automatic,  and  suit  must  be  brought 
by  the  injured  man  or  his  family  in  order  to  secure  damages. 
It  IS  estimated  by  the  accident  insurance  companies  that 
three  fourths  of  the  indemnity  paid  by  the  employer  is  usu- 
ally expended  in  litigadon.     Some  of  the  great  employers  of 
labor,  such  as  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  and  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  maintain  a  form  of  voluntary 
insurance  which  goes  far  to  make  good  the  shortcomings 
of  the  law.  ^ 

A  series  of  four  coal-mine  explosions  occurring  in  De- 
cember, 1907,  killed  seven  hundred  men  and  shocked  the 
happy-go-lucky  American  pubhc  to  the  point  of  demand- 
ing that  something  be  done.  The  federal  government 
through  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  arranged  for 
rescue  stations  at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  and  Urbana,  III,  where  the 
elements  of  risk  were  studied,  life-saving  appHances  de- 
vised, and  crews  of  men  trained  in  the  best  methods  of 
rehef.  A  Bureau  of  Mines  was  established  in  1910  for 
the  purpose  of  supervising  this  work  and  testing  explo- 
sives, shafting  materials,  and  hoisting  machinery,  and  a 


iM^  I 


11 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 
671-752. 

Bailey, 
Cyclopedia 
of  Agri- 
culture, 
IV,  486. 


1 

r 

1 

i 

\ 

1 

k 

i 

li 

1 

1 

i 

' 

'1 

1 
\ 

1 
1 

392      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

rescue  station  is  to  be  placed  in  every  large  coal  field  in 
the  country. 

The  battle  against  disease  is  being  waged  with  ever  in- 
creasing effectiveness.  Health  commissions,  city,  state 
and  national,  are  making  scientific  study  of  local  and  gen- 
eral conditions.  Quarantine  regulations,  sanitary  require- 
ments, and  tenement  house  inspection  are  being  enforced 
in  spite  of  the  protests  of  selfish  privates  interests.  The 
epidemics  that  devastated  our  ports  in  time  past  are  largely 
done  away,  and  isolated  outbreaks  are  quickly  brought  un- 
der control.  Vaccination  has  banished  smallpox ;  the  cam- 
paign against  mosquitoes  has  eliminated  yellow  fever ;  ty- 
phoid will  disappear  with  insistence  on  pure  water  and  the 
destruction  of  the  house  fly,  while  California  is  ridding 
herself  of  rats  and  ground-squirrels,  the  carriers  of  bubonic 
plague.  The  warfare  against  contagious  diseases  of  more 
insidious  type  may  not  so  soon  be  accomplished,  but  we  are 
fighting  tuberculosis  by  tenement  house  reform,  the  hook- 
worm disease  by  cleanliness,  and  the  vice  diseases  which 
are  responsible  for  a  large  proportion  of  the  defectives  in 
our  asylums  are  coming  to  be  regarded  as  intolerable. 
Variations  in  the  death  rate  indicate  the  hygienic  advance 
made  in  the  course  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. The  numbers  of  deaths  per  thousand  of  population 
from  1804-1825  was  24.6;  from  1826-1S50,  25.7;  from 
1851-1863,  28.3;  from  1864-1875,  25.4;  1876-1888,  22.9; 
from  1889-1901,  21.  Since  1890  the  death  rate  in  our 
principal  cities  has  declined  in  New  York  from  25.4  to 
18.6  ;  in  Boston  from  23.4  to  18.9 ;  in  Chicago  from 
19.87  to  14.07. 

"  The  pubUc  welfare  outweighs  the  right  to  private  gain, 
and  no  man  may  poison  the  people  for  his  private  profit," 
said  President  Roosevelt,  in  recommending  to  Congress 
legislation  forbidding  interstate  traffic  in  adulterated  or 
deteriorated  foods.  The  Pure  Food  and  Drug  law  is  en- 
forced with  difficulty  because  of  the  opposition  of  the  manu- 
facturers concerned,  but  the  new  standards  imposed  will 
ultimately  be  insisted  upon  by  state  legislation  and  by 


Conservation 


393 


the  pnvate  purchaser.     The  proposition  for  a  National 
Department  of  Health,  brought  forward  by  Congressman 
Owens  m  March,  1910,  is  urged  on  the  ground  that  the 
numerous  municipal  and  state  agencies  should  be  brought 
mto  Ime  with  the  most  advanced  achievement   and  that 
communities  which  are  struggling  against  local  influences 
should  have  the  support  of  the  Federal  government     The 
health  of  our  people  is  no  less  important  to  national  pres- 
tige than  our  standing  army,  while  the  money  cost  of  neg- 
lect IS  more  serious  than  war.     It  is  estimated  that  the 
financial  loss  represented  in  preventable  deaths  amounts 
to  $1,000,000,000  per  year,  and  that  the  costs  of  prevent- 
able Illness  and  the  medical  aid  incidental  thereto  amounts 
to  another  biUion  doUars. 

Reclamation 

The  Federal  government  has  not  confined  its  efforts  to 
the  guarding  of  life,  brute  and  human,  against  reckless 
exploitation,  but  has  organized  and  financed  certain  under- 
takings to  which  private  enterprise  was  inadequate.    The 
building  of  post  roads  and  canals  was  urged  upon  Congress 
by  Secretary  Gallatin,  but  the  scheme  he  proposed  was  too 
vast  for  the  men  of  his  generation,  and  only  recently  have 
we  come  to  reahze  the  advantage  of  a  comprehensive  plan 
A  large  amount  of  piecemeal  work  has  been  done  by  the 
general  government  in  the  way  of  improving  rivers  and  har- 
bors.    Millions  of  dollars  of  public  money  have  been  spent  ^    ,  ^  ,    . 
in  bmlding  levees  along  the  Mississippi,  in  erecting  break-  waterways 
waters  where  natural  harbors  needed  reenforcement,  dradg-  Com.,  igos, 
mg  nver  channels,  removing  obstructions  to  navigation  etc    '^^■'°^' 
A  considerable  portion  of  this  expenditure  has  gone  to  waste  %X-iii 
Decause  appropriations  and  engineering  skill  were  inade- 
quate to  permanent  results.     Moreover,  the  advent  of  the 
railway  diverted  public  interest  from  navigation  projects 
and  many  of  the  canals  built  by  state  aid  and  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  national  land  grants  have  fallen  into  disuse.    Rafl- 
way  traffic  has  superseded  water  traffic  because  it  offers 


'■ 


11 

^1 


I  ' 

'i»ll 

lH|i|ll             ': 
1 

Johnson, 
Inland 
Waterways, 
Ch.  IV,  V, 
VI,  VII. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
13-57- 

Inland 
Waterways 
Com.,  1908, 
177-312. 


Transpor- 
tation by 
Water 
in  U.S., 
149-380. 


Dixon, 
Tariff  Hist, 
of  Mississippi 
River  System. 


American 
Waterways, 
Annals  Am. 
Acad.  31 ; 
1-299. 


394      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

greater  speed  and  convenience,  but  our  magnificent  system 
of  inland  waterways  has  still  a  large  part  to  play  in  in- 
dustrial development.  The  accumulation  of  freight  traffic 
in  the  autumn  months,  when  the  crops  are  to  be  shipped  to 
market,  taxes  all  the  resources  of  the  railways,  and  the  con- 
sequent congestion  often  involves  the  shipptir  in  heavy  loss. 
Moreover,  where  no  competing  carrier  is  available,  freight 
rates  are  Ukely  to  be  excessive.  Recourse  to  a  water  route 
with  its  possibiUties  in  the  way  of  low  cost  transportation, 
would  have  more  effect  on  freight  tariffs  than  aj)peals  to 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 

The  Inland  Waterways  Movement  has  many  adherents 
among  business  men,  and  the  example  of  England,  France, 
and  Germany,  where  a  large  part  of  bulky  products  travel 
by  boat,  is  cited  in  evidence  of  our  own  stupid  neglect.  We 
have  25,000  miles  of  na\'igated  river  and  2120  miles  of 
operated  canals ;  but  the  mileage  should  be  increased  and 
the  capacity  of  the  waterways  doubled.  P^xcept  on  the 
Great  Lakes,  where  steamship  lines  are  operated  in  connec- 
tion \N'ith  the  railways,  there  has  been  a  notable  decline  in 
the  bulk  and  value  of  water-borne  freight  during  the  past 
thirty  years.  Many  of  the  canals  built  at  heavy  cost  in 
the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  been 
abandoned,  while  rivers  such  as  the  Hudson  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi, once  the  highways  of  commerce  (i 850-1880),  have 
surrendered  the  bulk  of  traffic  to  their  swift  competitor. 
Our  natural  waterways  must  be  cleared  of  debris  and  al- 
luvial deposits,  canals  that  bear  strategic  relation  to  trans- 
portation systems  must  be  widened  and  (deepened  to  ac- 
commodate modern  craft,  so  that  they  may  enter  into 
effective  competition  with  the  railroad.  A  steamer  with  a 
capacity  of  70,000  tons  is  the  equivalent  of  one  hundred 
freight  trains,  and  can  be  manned  and  fired  at  the  cost  of 
one. 

Federal  aid  is  invoked  in  behalf  of  a  series  of  transporta- 
tion projects  more  or  less  feasible.  The  Panama  Canal, 
now  approaching  completion,  will  promote  commerce  be- 
tween New  Orleans  and  San  Francisco,  and  do  much  toward 


Conservation 


395 


t   ! 


abating  transcontinental  freight  rates.    The  canaUzation 
of  the  Ohio  River  at  a  cost  of  $40,000,000  would  give  a 
cheap  outlet  for  the  coal,  iron,  and  timber  of  the  Appa- 
lachian states.    The  deep  waterway  from  the  Lakes  to  the 
Gulf,  via  the  Chicago  drainage  canal  and  the  Illinois  River 
IS  intended  to  furnish  sufficient  draft  for  sea-going  vessels' 
so  that  the  cattle,  grain,  and  cotton  grown  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley  can  be  shipped  direct  to  Europe.     The  deep  water- 
way from  Buffalo  to  New  York,  utiUzing  the  Erie  Canal 
and  the  Hudson  River,  would  tap  the  Great  Lakes  at  an- 
other point  and  furnish  an  outlet  to  the  Atlantic.     The  cost 
of  an  all-water  route  from  New  York  to  New  Orleans,  devel- 
oped to  the  capacity  of  ocean  steamers,  is  estimated  at 
$100,000,000,  but  this  initial  expenditure  would  be  quickly 
made  good  in  the  economies  of  transportation,  and  it  is 
therefore  urged  by  the  shipping  interests  concerned     The 
business  men  of  the  Northwest  are  no  less  insistent  that  the 
Federal  government  should  undertake  to  render  the  Co- 
lumbia River  navigable  for  freight  steamers  by  enlarging 
the  locks  at  the  Cascades  and  canalizing  the  river  at  the 
Dalles.     More  than  one  thousand  miles  of  waterway  could 
thus  be  rendered  available  for  the  wheat  fields  and  fruit 
orchards  of  the  Columbia  River  Basin. 

Achievements  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  —  In 
his  last  Congressional  message,  George  Washington,  our 
tarmer  president,  recommended  the  estabHshment  of  a 
government  department  charged  with  the  furthering  of  in- 
telligent agriculture.     The  proposition  was  debated  from 
time    to    time,  but  action  was  deferred    till  18^9,  when 
Congress  appropriated  $1000  to  be  expended  in\he  pur- 
chase of  new  varieties  of  seeds  and  plants  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Patent  Office.    The  appropriation  was  increased 
as  the  propaganda  grew  popular,  but  the  Bureau  of  Agri- 
culture was  not  organized  as  a  distinct  office  until  1862. 
In  this  same  year  provision  was  made  for  the  maintenance 
of  agncultural  colleges  from  the  proceeds  of  land  grants 
and  thus  the  movement  for  scientific  agriculture  obtained 
tun  recognition.    The  first  agricultural  experiment  stations 


Matthews, 
Remaking  of 
the  Missis- 
sippi. 

Deep 

Waterways 
Com.,  i8q7, 
7-33. 


Johnson, 
Inland 
Waterways, 
Ch.  X,  XI. 


Transpor- 
tation by 
Water  in 
U.S.,  II, 
249-280. 


Greathouse, 
Hist.  Dept. 
of  Agri- 
culture. 


I 


Fairchild, 
Our  Plant 
Immigrants. 


396      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

were  established  by  Federal  appropriation  in  1887,  and 
the  Bureau  of  Agriculture  was  raised  to  the  status  of  a 
department  with  representation  on  the  Cabmet  two  years 
after.  The  annual  appropriation  to  this  service  is  now 
$16,000,000,  while  the  Third  Endowment  Act  (1907)  pro- 
vides for  a  money  grant  of  $56,000  a  year  to  each  of  the 
forty-six  states  and  territories  for  the  extension  of  agri- 
cultural training. 

The  functions  of  the   Dqmrtment  of  Agriculture  are 
represented  in  a  series  of  bureaus,  e.g.  the  Weather  Bureau, 
where  an  accurate  climatic  record  is  kept,  and  whence 
forecasts  and  weather  signals  are  issued  for  the  benefit  of 
shipping  and  agriculture ;  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry, 
which  studies  the  diseases  of  horses,  cattle,  hogs,  and  sheep, 
and  publishes  information  on  scientific  breeding,  hygienic 
dairy  farming,  etc.     One  of  its  recent  achievements  is  a 
treatise  on  effective  methods  of  combating  loco  weed  poison- 
ing.    The  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  conducts  first-hand 
investigations  and  experiments  in  the  adaptation  of  plants, 
new  and  old,  to  the  varied  conditions  of  climate,  soil,  and 
humidity  to  be  found  in  this  country.     Their  latest  triumph 
is  the  discovery  of  a  hardy  alfalfa  suited  to  the  cattle  ranches 
of  Montana  and  the  Northwest,  and  a  Persian  clover  that 
will  flourish  on  the  arid  mesas  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 
This  achievement  cost  the  discoverer  a  twelve-year  hunt 
over  the  sub-Arcric  plains  of  Siberia  and  the  arid  steppes  of 
Central  Asia.    The  Bureau  of  Soils  is  making  an  extensive 
inquiry  into  agricultural  conditions  of  every  state  in  the 
Union,  and  reports  are  issued,  county  by  county,  detailing 
the  constituent  properties  of  the  soils  represented,  their 
water-holding  capacity,  facilities  for  drainage  or  irrigation, 
climatic   influences,    crop   yields,    etc.     The   agricultural 
methods  in  use  and  the  changes  deemed  desirable  are  dis- 
cussed in  each  instance.     This  bureau  has  carried  on  a 
series  of  experiments  in  Utah,  California,  and  elsewhere,  as 
to  the  method  of  removing  alkali  from  soils  impregnated 
with  this  plant-killing  salt.     The  Bureau  of  Entomology 
is  engaged  in  a  campaign  against  destructive  insects,  such 


Conservation 


597 


as  the  gypsy  moth,  the  elm  beetle,  and  the  brown-tailed 
moth,  notorious  enemies  to  forest  growth,  and  cattie  pests 
such  as  the  gadfly  and  the  buffalo  gnat.  The  scientists 
of  this  branch  of  the  service  discovered  the  sins  of  the 
mosquito  in  spreading  malaria  and  yellow  fever  and  the 
responsibiUty  of  the  house  fly  for  typhoid.  The  Bureau 
of  Chemistry  is  made  responsible  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  Pure  Food  and  Drug  law,  conducts  adulteration  tests 
and  standardizes  drugs.  ' 

It  has  been  demonstrated  that  under  suitable  rotation 
of  crops  the  drain  on  the  chemical  constituents  of  the  soQ 
may  be  minimized,  and  that  the  introduction  of  nitrogen- 
bearing  plants  —  clover,  cow  peas,  and  alfalfa  —  may  do 
much  to  conserve  the  fertiUty  of  the  fields.     Under  this 
beneficent  department,  new  varieties  of  corn  and  tobacco 
have  been  made  to  flourish  on  soils  formerly  regarded  as 
unproductive  ;   experiments  with  sugar  beets  have  proved 
that  this  crop  can  be  successfully  grown  through  a  wide 
belt  m  the  North  and  West ;  Egyptian  cotton,  valuable  for 
Its  long  staple  and  hardy  growth,  has  been  adapted  to  the 
uplands  of  the  CaroUnas  and  Georgia ;  spring  wheat  has 
been  sown  m  the  Dakotas  and  macaroni  wheat  in  the 
semi-arid  plains,  adding  vast  areas  to  our  wheat  acreage ; 
the  navel  orange  and  irrigation  have  converted  the  deserts 
of  southern  California  into  a  prosperous  land  of  orchards. 
The  Department  of  Agriculture  and  the  agricultural  col- 
leges have  set  about  the  systematic  education  of  the  Ameri- 
can farmer.     Bulletins  dealing  with  every  problem  that 
can  present  itself  to  the  cotton   planter,  the   ranchman, 
market  gardener,  or  dairyman  may  be  had  free  on  applica- 
tion ;  the  information  is  given  in  simple,  direct  fashion,  and 
the  improvements  proposed  are  such  as  can  be  followed  by 
a  man  of  small  capital  and  meager  education.     Model 
farms  are  operated  in  the  several  agricultural  districts, 
m  order  that  the  various  experiments  and  successes  may 
serve  as  object  lessons  to  a  farming  community.     Farm- 
ers institutes  are  held  in  every  state  in  the  Union.    The 
attendance  in  1907   was  more  than  1,500,000,  and   the 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 
108,  269. 

Hopkins, 

Soil 

Fertility. 


Cyclopedia 
of  Agricul- 
ture, IV, 
Ch.  VIII. 


Ilf 


Fernow, 
Forestry 
in  U.  S. 


Fernow, 
Economics 
of  Forestry, 
Ch.  XII. 


u 


398      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

agricultural  colleges  were  taxed  to  provide  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  lecturers.  Demonstration  trains  are  sent  through  the 
remoter  districts,  the  cars  being  fitted  up  with  exhibits 
indicating  the  latest  improvements  in  dairying,  apiculture, 
viticulture,  the  best  results  attained  from  the  several  varie- 
ties of  wheat,  alfalfa,  corn,  etc. 

The  Forestry  Service.  — 'I  he  census    of    1870  was  the 
first  to  suggest  the  deplerioii  of  our  forest  area  and  the 
necessity  for  safeguarding  the  future  timber  supply.     The 
report  attracted  the  attention  of  pubhc-spirited  men,  an 
American  Forestry  Association  was  organized,  and  a  sys- 
tematic campaign  undertaken.    The  Timber  Culture  Act 
of  1873  was  intended  to  reforest  the  treeless  areas  west  of 
the  one  hundredth  meridian.     It  provided  that  a  man 
might  secure  dtle  to  a  quarter  section  in  the  public  lands 
by  planting  forty  acres  of  timber  and  proving  a  ten-year 
growth.     The  terms  proved  too  difficult,  and  were  later 
modified  to  ten  acres  in  trees  and  an  eight-year  growth ; 
but  even  so  the  actual  results  were  slight.     The  plantations 
died  for  lack  of  moisture  and  adequate  care,  and  man}'  titles 
were  secured  by  fraudulent  proofs.    The  act  was  repealed 
in  1891,  and  in  that  same  year  the  president  of  the  United 
States  was  empowered  to  create  forest  reserves  in  the  public 
domain.     President  Harrison  proclaimed  four  such  reser- 
vations and  President  Cleveland  thirteen,  covering  a  total 
area  of  17,500,000  acres,  while  President  Roosevelt  added 
150,000,000  acres  to  our  forest  domain.    There  are  to- 
day one  hundred  and  fifty  national  forests  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  area  so  reserved  amounts  to  162,000,000 
acres.     The  public  lands  segregated  for  forest  use  are  lo- 
cated almost  wholly  in  the  Cordilleran  area,  and  lie  in  three 
tiers  running  from  north  to  south  in  line  with  the  Continen- 
tal Divide,  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Cascade  ranges,  and 
the  Coast    range.     Not  all  this  land  is  forested;    some 
of  it  is  fitted  to  agriculture,  a  large  proportion  to  pasturage 
only,  and  some  of  it  doubtless  contains  important  mineral 
.deposits.    The  United  States  Geological  Survey  is  engaged 
in  classifying  and  deUmiting  the  mineral  lands,  and  the 


Marking  Unsound  Trees 


FOR   CUTTING.      AraPAHO  NATIONAL   FOREST 


Cattle  grazing  in  Wallowa  National  Forest,  Oregon 


[If  Vi  W!f 

bill 


lllli' 

till 


Conservation 


Forest  Service  is  studying  the  surface  resources  with  a  view 
to  designating  their  most  effective  use 

The  forest  law  of  1897  determined  that  the  several  reser- 
vations should  be  administered  with  a  view  to  utilizing 
the  surplus  product  of  grass  and  timber  while  conserving 
the  normal  growth  The  task  was  intrusted  to  a  Bureau 
of  Forestry  under  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  m 

triT  ■  J \  T"^^^  ^^^'^"^  ^  organized  in  six  dis- 
tncts,  with  headquarters  at  Missoula,  Ogden,  Denver 
Albuquerque  San  Francisco,  and  Poriland.  A  forlte; 
IS  placed  m  charge  of  each  district,  and  the  field  staff  com- 
pns^  some  1500  men.    The  several  functions  performed 

11)'  f  tv"^"'^^""''  ^')  P^°t^^'°n  ^g^in^t  forest  tt 
and  timber  thieves,  the  special  function  of  the  forest  ranger 

£t.^T  K  '"''!,'  '^'?°^'  °f  «^t"«'  dead,  or  insect  in: 
fected  timber  under  suitable  conditions  as  to  logging  saw- 
ing, transportation,  etc.  As  a  timber  merchant,  Uncf;  Sam 
deab  by  preference  with  the  settlers  of  the  imm^liate  ndg" 

S^isfha'n  t™"''V''r^°'  ^"^  ^'^^  ^'^  -^de  in  lots 
b  oth  ""^   ^"  "-^^  y^"  '908  the  timber  sales 

?or  friL  '  ''"'°""  °^/"'^  ^'"■''^'  ^"'  30,000  permits 
tor  free  use  were  issued  to   settlers,  prospectors,  schools 

i^'f '  T-  J""'  ^"''^  ^*^*^  government  d/sposes  of 
more  lumber  than  any  forest  owner  except  the  Czar  of 
Kussia     (3)  Pasturage.     Districts  suitable  for  grazing  are 

it  ov."  f  K  ^"'^^^,'^^P™^"  "nder  careful  Ltricfions 
as  to  overstocking.  The  government  ratio  is  ten  acres  to  a 
cow  and  under  this  liberal  allowance  the  weight  and 
quality  of  the  animals  is  notably  superior  to  those  fed 
upon  the  open  range,  while  the  forage  growth  is  regaining 

Tn/Z  k'^T"^^-  ""'"'  ^^  ^^e-y^here,  the  settle! 
and  home  builders  have  the  first  choice.     Fully  8  loo  000 

^'^-.^'"^-•.-"le,  sheep,  and  goats  -  were  p^ 
SnTo  k'  ''"kv'  '■^"^'  ''"""S  »9o8,  and  $962,8.9  was 
ownef  M  Tf  ''  '"^^'^  ^^  '^'  twenty-four  thousand 
ZnZ'J^l  Reforestation.  Great  care  is  taken  in  deter- 
mmmg  the  trees  that  may  be  felled,  and  the  conservation  ' 


I 


i| 


Ll.r 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
95-126. 


Pinchot, 

Private 

Forests. 


400      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

of  young  growth  is  a  matter  of  prime  concern.  Devastated 
areas  are  replanted  with  species  adapted  to  special  condi- 
tions of  soil  and  climate,  —  the  Douglas  fir  for  the  Wasatch 
Range,  the  yellow  pine  for  the  Sierras,  the  (;ucalyp)tus  for 
the  arid  and  frostless  districts  of  CaHfornia.  (5)  Coaserva- 
tion  of  stream  flow,  one  of  the  functions  prescribed  in  the 
law  of  1897,  and  a  concern  of  the  Forest  Service  which  is 
of  prime  importance  to  the  far  West,  where  fuel  is  scarce 
and  industry  must  rely  upon  water  power.  Special  atten- 
tion is  given  to  safeguarding  the  forest  cover  in  the  drainage 
basins  where  the  mountain  streams  have  their  source,  in 
order  that  the  winter  precipitation  may  be  h(?ld  over  as  far 
into  the  summer  as  possible,  thus  guarding  against  destruc- 
tive  floods  and  guaranteeing  a  constant  flow. 

Three  fourths  of  our  forests  are  in  private  hands,  and 
these  are  usually  the  best  stocked,  containing  four  fifths 
of  all  the  timber  in  the  country.  Scientific  forestry  must 
be  practised  by  the  farmer,  the  timber  companies,  the 
owners  of  great  estates,  if  there  is  to  be  any  fundamental 
change  in  our  national  habits.  At  present  hardly  one  per 
cent  of  the  private  forest  lands  receive  adequate  care,  and 
fire  destroys  more  timber  in  the  farmer's  woodlots  than  on 
the  pubhc  domain.  The  need  of  nationalizing  certain 
timbered  areas  in  the  Eastern  states  is  becoming  evident. 
The  proposed  Appalachian  forest  reserve  would  enrich  the 
tributary  region  by  conserving  an  important  timber  supply, 
regulating  stream  flow,  and  preventing  farther  erosion  of 
adjacent  farm  lands. 

Reclamation  of  Agricultural  Land.— The  pressure  of  popu- 
lation on  the  food  supply  is  becoming  evident  in  the  United 
States.  Our  exportation  of  agricultural  products  is  declin- 
ing, the  prices  of  beef,  cereals,  hides,  wool,  etc.  are  rising, 
and  they  are  not  hkely  to  fall  to  former  levels.  It  is  prob- 
able that  wheat  at  one  dollar  per  bushel  is  a  permanent 
factor  in  our  national  economy.  Values  are  mounting 
from  year  to  year,  for  we  are  fast  reaching  the  limit  of  our 
cultivable  area,  while  the  demand  for  farms  is  enhanced 
by  the  incoming  of  land-hungry  peasants  from  Europe. 


Conservation  .qj 

American  farmers  are  beginning  to  migrate  to  the  Cana 
dian  Northwest,  where  unexploited  whe'at  areas  await  cd 
tivation.     Sixty  thousand  emigrants  crossed  the  blundarv 

75,000  m  1909.  The  mcreased  value  of  farm  lands  is  Hup 
in  part  to  scientific  tHlage,  resulting  in  largercropfand  to 

^.nt  ^Tr'  ^^  ^-P--~'  ~  'uildS  fences 
roads,  etc.     The  average  rise  in  capitaHzation  between 

tio„  ^      ,LL  ta  JnXet\hI'wra"^SS- 

swerable  nse,- South  Central,  40.2  per  cent,  North  Cen- 
traU5.3,  South  Atlantic,  36,  North  Atlantic,    3.5  per  cem 

ticdt^  '^T:f  P"*'""  °'  '^^  P"''"'^  d  Jain™: 
ssSi  fT     '   '"'"'  4~,ooo,ooo  acres  remain  inV^ 

or  grazing  only.     The  supply  of  arable  land  is  being  rapidly 
appropriated  having  been  sold  and  taken  up  by  ho2 

onein.  nf T  T^  °  ^^  ^"^"^"^  ^^  ^  '^"^  ^^^-    The 
IS  attended  by  crowds  of  homeseekers  eager  to  try  their 

posals  for  the  extension  of  the  cultivable  area  by  the  irrisa- 

crLratSntr'^  "-^  ^^^^^^  °^  — p  '-^  ^ 

legation  of  Arid  Lands.  -  Professor  Shaler  called  the 
CordiUeran  area  "  the  curse  of  the  continent. "  ThToulout 

n^dirr:  r  °'-*1^  ^---^^^-^  -glon,  the  rain^ " 
inadequate  for  agnculture  or  for  forest  growth  excent  on 

t  Sf p'  °'-''^  ""^"'  ^""^'^  *••--"»  -m'  f-- 

udes     TV,r??f "'  •""'''"'^  ^'  '''^y  *^  t°  c°<>l«  alti- 
tudes.   The  total  area  is  758,000,000  acres.     The  larger 

portion  IS  rock  or  shale  or  sand,  and  quite  unfit  for  tSS 
land^htr^  be  60,000,000  acres  of  fairly  level  and  ferdle 
land  which  could  be  rendered  cultivable  by  irrigation. 


Holmes, 
Changes  in 
Farm  Values 


Humphrey, 
What  is  the 
Matter  with 
our  Land 
Laws? 


Powell, 
Lands  of  the 
Arid  Region. 


n 


Census,  iqoo, 
VI,  801-809. 


Brough, 
Irrigation 
in  Utah. 

National 
Conservation 
Com.,  I, 

85-91 ;  in, 

422. 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  II, 
59-95. 

Meade, 
Irrigation 
Institutions, 
Ch.  II. 


402      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Where  soil  and  climate  are  suited,  and  a  water  supply 
available,  these  arid  lands  are  highly  productive. 

Irrigation  has  been  practised  for  centuries  by  the  Pueblo 
Indians  along  the  Rio  Grande  and  GUa  rivers,  each  com- 
munity bunding  the  ditch  with  which  to  water  the  common 
cornfields,  while  the  irrigated  orchards  and  vineyards  of 
the   Franciscan  missions   in  southern  CaUfornia  proved 
what  might  be  done  with  larger  resources.     The  first  suc- 
cesses of  the  Mormons  m  Utah  have  been  repeated  in  a 
hundred  different  settlements,  until  in  iqoo  the  communi- 
ties of  this  sect  had  more  than  6,000,000  acres  under  ir- 
rigation.    The  first  attempt  of  the  Federal  government  to 
deal  with  the  problem  of  the  arid  region  was  the  Desert 
Land  Act  of  1877,  by  which  tracts  of  640  acres  were  offered 
at  $1.25  per  acre,  on  condition  that  irrigation  be  attempted. 
The  only  men  to  take  advantage  of  tlie  law  were  cattle 
and  sheep  ranchers  who  seized  the  opportunity  to  get  per- 
naanent  title  to  their  headquarters,  and  speculative  irriga- 
tion companies  which  put  in  inadequate  wate-rworks,  sold 
the  land  without  water  right,  or  charged  a  monopoly  price 
for  the  water  supplied.      Land  title    and  water    right 
were   rendered   inseparable    in   the    Carey  Act  of   1894. 
This  wise  law  provides  that  any  one  of  the  arid  states 
may  appropriate    public    land    to  the  amount    of  one 
million  acres  in  suitable  tracts  and  authorize  the  con- 
truction  of  irrigation  works  thereon  by  i)rivate  companies. 
The  engineering  plans  for  each  enterprise  must  be  approved 
by  the  state  land  commission,  as  well  as  the  charge  to  be 
made  for  water  rights.     The  state  sells  the  land  to  settlers 
at  fifty  cents  an  acre,  and  full  title  may  be  acquired  after 
thirty  days'  residence.     The  water  right  charge  varies  with 
the  cost  of  construction,  from  $30  to  $40  per  acre,  and  may 
be  paid  in  ten  annual  installments.     Ownership  in  the 
reservoirs,  canals,  dams,  etc.,  is  held  by  the  company  until 
these  payments  are  complete,  and  then  passes  to  the  water 
users'  association.     Seven  states,  Wyoming,  Idaho,  Mon- 
tana, Utah,  Colorado,  Arizona,  and  California,  have  already 
taken  advantage  of  the  Carey  Act,  and  New  Mexico  and 


The  Truckke-Carson  Project 


i'l 


I 


i' 

M 

P 


Conservation 


403 


Texas  have  both  apphed  for  a  land  grant  in  order  to  de- 
velop their  irrigation  possibiUties.  Thus  far  only  fertile 
lands  and  easUy  irrigated  have  been  taken  up,  and  the 
projects  now  under  cultivation  are  highly  successful.  The 
Carey  Act  does  not,  however,  provide  for  interstate  pro- 
jects, nor  does  it  lead  to  any  large  and  comprehensive  plan 
of  conserving  the  water  resources  of  the  vast  region  con- 
cerned. Agam  the  responsibiUty  of  maintaining  the  irri- 
S^rn'  f'\  "^^  constructing  company \as  si^- 
^nt^-1    i''  '''^°'^?.  "P°"  "^^  ^^™«^'  ^•'"'^Wle  they 

aii'ttfT?"  ^'*  °^  '^'  '^'  F«l«^l  government 
^umed  the  task  of  irrigating  tracts  of  arid  land  not  other- 

iTnir^^  n  ^r;.  tf  '^'  ""^""^  f^"-  ^^'-  of  public 
lands  m  the  Umted  States,  amounting  to  about  $10  000  000 

ar:Sr:mf^;''A'''^P"^°^^  Theinitilu^;:^ 
are  met  from  this  fund,  but  the  cost  of  construction  in  each 

and  irr""  r,*'"  '^"^^^  '°  "•^^'^  ^-^er  is  furnisS^ 
and  must  be  met  ultimately  by  the  settlers  in  the  ten  first 
yeai.  of  cultivation.    The  returns  are  used  for  the  prosfcu^ 

oUhe  Hom^T'^S' aT'^,''^'  '''"^  ''^''-  ^he  provisions 
Of  the  Homestead  Act  apply  to  the  lands  irrigated  by  the 

It^ZT;    t  fr  °'  ''^  U"'^^^  States'may  ac^i^^ 
be  ni  d^f^  tract  of  twenty,  forty,  or  eighty  acres  (the  area 
being  determmed  by  the  nature  of  the  soil)  on  condition 

der  r.r':'  ''^''^^r  ^"^  '^^  ^""^°g  -f  ^^^  the  area  r 
der  cultivation.    The  water  right  charge  varies  from  $20 

10530  per  acre,  according  to  cost  of  construction.    The 

water  supply  is  inalienable  from  the  land,  and  the  govern- 

o  2tr  '"f  "^  1'^'"^""'  '^  ^"«°^"t  for  any  crop  suited 
thi  kw  ';  The  «^^"tion  of  irrigation  projects  under 
oStniir  'TT"^^"  *'  Reclamation  Service,  a  bureau 
organized  under  the  Department  of  the  Interior.     During 

bSn  com^tr/^  ^  '^'^'^'  t^«"ty-eight  projects  havf 

ac^^^r^i  "^L^*  ^^^"^  °^  «7o,ooo,ooo,  and  1,9x0,000 

a^  ,^    ^''"  ^'°''^^'  """^^^  cultivation,  fully  ha  f  of  this 
area  under  direct  irrigation. 


Newell, 
Irrigation. 


Bten.  Legal 
Problems. 


Meade, 
Irrigation  In- 
vestigations. 


I    1 


I' 


National 
Conservation 
Com.,  Ill, 
361-375- 


404      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

Beneficent  as  the  Reclamation  Act  has  proved,  certain 
difficulties  have  become  apparent  in  its  operation.    The 
annual  revenue  derived  from  public  land  sales  is  inadequate 
to  all  the  projects  set  on  foot,  the  work  has  been  delayed 
unduly,  and  some  of  the  settlers  who  filed  in  good  faith  for 
the  five-year  residence  term  are  still  waiting   for  water, 
because  money  is  lacking  to  complete  the  canals.    The  Rec- 
lamation Service  worked  out  a  plan  for  meeting  this  situa- 
tion, e.g,  the  engineer  in  charge  was  authorized  to  arrange 
with  the  homesteaders  to  ])uild  the  canals,  paying  for  their 
labor  in  certificates  of  indeljtedness,  and  Secretary  Garfield 
agreed  to  receive  this  "  water  scrip  "  in  payment  for  the 
annual  water  charge  as  it  fell  due.     The  plan  seemed  justi- 
fied by  its  economies.     Labor  that  was  running  to  waste 
was  brought  to  bear  where  it  was  most  needed,  and  the 
farmers  were  enabled  to  forestall  their  obligations  to  the 
government  in  their  one  available  asset.     This  method  of 
canal  construction  was  put  in  operation  on  six  different 
projects,  and  some  $300,000  had  been  issued  in  water  scrip 
when  the  legality  of  the  procedure  was  called  in  question, 
and  Attorney  General  Wickersham  ruled  that  the  device 
was  illegal,  since  not  specifically  authorized  by  the  Rec- 
lamation Act.     Congress  has  since  met  the  financial  diffi- 
culties involved  by  voting  an  issue  of  $20,000,000  for  the 
completion  of  the  work  already  undertaken  and  in  immedi- 
ate prospect,  this  issue  to  be  in  the  form  of  certificates  of 
indebtedness  guaranteed  by  future  revenue  from  land  sales. 
The  sum  total  of  irrigated  lands  in  the  United  States 
to-day  is  7,500,000  acres  in  the  arid  region,  275,000  in  the 
semi-arid,  and  3000  in  the  humid  section  east  of  the  one 
hundredth  meridian. 

'  Drainage  of  Swamp  Lands.  —  Excess  of  water  is  a  prob- 
lem only  less  difficult  to  the  agriculturist  than  scanty  rain- 
fall. The  lands  unfitted  for  agriculture  by  flooded  con- 
ditions, more  or  less  permanent,  amount  to  75,000,000 
acres,  e.g.  the  "  Dismals"  of  Virginia,  the  bayous  of   the 

Carolinas,  Florida,  and  the  Gulf  coast,  the  deltas  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  the  swamp  areas  of  the  great  interior 


Irrigation  of  Western  Lands 


Consefvation 


40s 


valley  of  California.     By  an  act  of  1850,  the  swamp  lands 
belonging  to  the  United  States  government  were  made  over 
to  the  states  in  which  they  lay,  on  condition  that  the  funds 
denved  from  their  sale  be  used  to  reclaim  them.     Under 
this  law  65,000,000  acres  have  been  disposed  of,  to  private 
individuals  m  the  main,  although  canals,  railroads,  schools 
and  other  public  institutions  have  to  some  degree  shared 
m  the  benefit.     Drainage  operations  have  been  carried  on 
m  rather  haphazard  fashion  by  drainage  commissions 
levee  boards,  and  private  companies,  and  the  results  are  far 
from  satisfactory.     The  cost  of  draining  arable  land  by 
ditches  may  be  anywhere  from  $15  to  $30  an  acre,  with  an 
annual  maintenance  charge  of  from  $1   to  $3.     Levees 
cost  indefinitely  more,  and  pumping  machinery,  when  nec- 
essary, adds  an  expensive  item ;  but  overflowed  lands  are 
usually  rich  in  nitrogen  and  well  repay  the  cost  of  reclama- 
tion.    Appeal  has  been  made  to  the  Federal  government 
to  aid  certain  large  drainage  projects,  such  as  are  required 
m  northern  Minnesota,  in  the   lands  overflowed  by  the 
Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin  rivers,  in  the  Yazoo  delta 
and    along    the    TaUahatchie.     The    Inland    Waterways 
Commission   (1908)   recommended  that  the  government 
undertake  the  reclamation  of  swamp  lands  on  the  ground 
that  not  only  would  highly  fertile  areas  be  recovered  to 
cultivation   and    malaria-breeding   swamps    be   rendered 
sanitary,  but  that  the  navigability  of  the  rivers  concerned 
would  be  greatly  enhanced.    Such  projects  should  be  under- 
taken on  a  scale  commensurate  with  Federal  enterprise  in 
order  that  unity  of  plan  and  permanent  results  may  be  at- 
tained.    A  bill  is  now  before  Congress  (introduced  by 
Senator  Flint  of  California)  proposing  that  the  proceeds  of 
pubhc  land  sales  in  the  non-arid  states  be  devoted  to  the 
reclamation  of  these  drowned  areas,  the  land  to  be  made 
over  to  homesteaders  in  small  tracts,  and  the  cost  of  drain- 
age to  constitute  a  first  lien  on  the  land  and  to  be  repaid 
by  the  farmers  in  installments,  after  the  precedent  of  the 
Reclamation  Act. 

Dry    Fanning. -- Irrigation    is    restricted    to    districts 


I 


McDonald, 

Dry 

Farming. 


I 


Scofield,    ^ 
Dry 

Farming  in 
the  Great 
Basin. 


I 


406      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

where  water  is  available  and  where  the  topography  is  such 
that  the  lands  lie  below  the  river  or  reservoir  from  which 
the  supply  is  drawn.  Pumping  to  higher  levels  is  a  physi- 
cal possibility,  but  is  too  expensive  for  any  but  the  most 
productive  regions.  There  is  a  vast  extent  of  fertile  coun- 
try lying  west  of  the  one  hundredth  meridan  where  these 
conditions  can  rarely  be  found.  The  Great  Plains  — west- 
em  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  eastern  Colorado  and  northern 
Texas  —were  long  the  despair  of  agriculturists.  The  rain- 
fall is  scant,  varying  from  ten  to  twenty  inches,  the  rivers  are 
shallow  and  inconstant,  and  the  land  is  hilly  and  broken, 
yet  the  soil,  a  deep  alluvial  loam,  would  yield  hea\y  crops 
if  sufl&cient  moisture  were  available.  This  region  has  been 
brought  under  cultivation  by  a  special  type  of  agriculture, — 
dry  farming,  —  a  process  calculated  to  conserve  in  the  soil 
itself  whatever  precipitation  occurs.  The  field  is  plowed 
in  the  autumn,  just  before  the  rainy  season,  to  a  depth  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  inches,  in  order  to  allow  the  water  to  soak 
through  to  the  subsoil.  In  the  spring  when  the  surface 
hardens,  it  is  plowed  and  harrowed  into  a  fine  mulch, 
forming  a  dust  blanket  which  effectually  prevents  evapora- 
tion. The  seed  is  drilled  in  deep,  and  a  smaller  amount  per 
acre  is  used  in  order  to  economize  water  and  nitrogen  and 
leave  each  plant  adequate  nutrition.  In  all  but  the  best 
lands,  a  summer  fallow  should  be  allowed  every  other  year. 
The  method  was  used  first  on  the  wheat  ranches  of  Califor- 
nia some  sixty  years  ago,  and  it  is  now  successfully  prac- 
tised in  the  Columbia  River  Basin  and  on  the  western 
slopes  of  the  ranges  that  intersect  the  desert  regions  of  Utah 
and  Nevada.  It  is  admirably  adapted  to  cereals  and  to 
certain  forage  crops,  such  as  clover  and  cowpeas,  and  fruit 
orchards  may  be  successfully  developed  if  water  can  be  sup- 
pUed  in  abundance  for  the  first  three  years  of  growth.  Dry 
farming  should  be  properly  regarded  as  supplementary  to  ir- 
rigation, a  means  of  bringing  under  tillage  such  portions  of 
the  farm  as  cannot  be  provided  with  water.  The  introduc- 
tion of  drought-resisting  plants  and  trees  —  durum  wheat, 
kaffir  corn,  and   Persian   clover  —  will   doubtless  extend 


Conservation 


407 


the  area  of  its  usefulness.    The  Department  of  Agriculture 
has  established  an  office  of  Dry  Land  Agriculture  which  is 
engaged  m  making  experiments  as  to  the  best  methods  of 
cultivation,  while  the  states  of  Utah,  Colorado,  and  Wyo- 
mmg  have  provided  for  model  farms  as  a  means  of  demon- 
stratmg  its  practicabUity.     It  seems  to  be  proven  that  a  National 
larger  holding  than  the  quarter  section  of  the  homestead  Conservation 
entry  is  essential  to  the  best  success.     The  Mondell  Act  ^°°''  ^  ^^■ 
of  1909  increases  the  homesteader's  claim  to  320  acres  in 
case  of  fiUngs  on  non-timbered,  non-mineral,  non-irrigable 
land  m  the  and  states,  and  requires  no  residence  term,  but 
evidence  of  successful  cultivation  instead. 


The  Conservation  Movement 

The  inception  of  the  movement  for  conservation  of  our 
national  resources  should  be  credited  to  Gifford  Pinchot 
late  Chief  Forester  of  the  United  States.     He  it  is  who  in- 
duced the  National  Academy  of  Science  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee (1896)  to  investigate  and  report  on  the  forest  policy 
of  the  country.     Gifford  Pinchot  and  F.  H.  Newell,  the 
efficient  head  of  the  Reclamation  Service,  suggest^  to 
President  Roosevelt  the  appointment  of  the  Public  Lands 
Commission  (1903),  which  made  a  thoroughgoing  inquiry 
mto  the  use  and  abuse  of  our  national  domain,  especially 
as  regards  grazing  and  agriculture.     This  in  turn  led  to 
the  appointment  of  the  Inland  Waterways  Commission, 
which    suggested    the    Conference    of    Governors.     This 
conference  was  convened  by  President  Roosevelt  at  the 
White  House  in  May,  1908,  and  every  state  and  territory 
m  the  Union  was  represented  by  one  or  more  delegates. 
The  immediate  consequence  was  the  appointment  of  forty 
state  conservation  commissions  for  local   work,   and  a 
National  Conservation  Commission  to  promote  the  general 
interest.    The  great  achievement  of  the  Federal  commis- 
sion has  been  the  three-volume  report  submitted  to  Con- 
gress in  January,  1909.    In  the  compilation  of  this  report, 
the  several  Federal  bureaus  were  requisitioned,  and  the 


Pinchot, 
Government 
Forestry 
Abroad. 


Rept. 

Conference 
of  Governors 


i  I  III 


408      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

experts  of  the  United  States  Geological  Sur\'ey,  the  For- 
estry Service,  and  the  Agricultural  Department,  contrib- 
uted their  accumulated  stores  of  information.  The  result 
was  the  first  scientific  inventory  of  the  natural  resources 
of  the  United  States  ever  made,  and  the  interesting  ex- 
hibit of  wastes  and  latent  possibilities  forms  the  groundwork 
for  progressive  legislation  along  sound  and  rational  lines. 
In  his  special  message  transmitting  the  report  to  Congress, 
President  Roosevelt  said :  — 

"  We  know  that  our  population  is  now  adding  about  one 
fifth  to  its  numbers  in  ten  years,  and  that  by  the  middle 
of  the  present  century  perhaps  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
Uon  Americans,  and  by  its  end  very  many  millions  more, 
must  be  fed  and  clothed  from  the  products  of  our  soil. 
With  the  steady  growth  in  population  and  the  still  more 
rapid  increase  in  consumption,  our  people  will  hereafter 
make  greater  and  not  less  demands  per  capita  upon  all  the 
natural  resources  for  their  livelihood,  comfort,  and  con- 
venience. It  is  high  time  to  realize  that  our  responsibility 
to  the  coming  millions  is  like  that  of  parents  to  their  chil- 
dren, and  that  in  wasting  our  resources  we  are  wronging  our 
descendants." 
National  The  recommendations  of  the  Commission  for  the  land 

letin  4,  p.  12.  I-  "  Every  part  of  the  public  lands  should  be  devoted  to 
the  use  which  will  best  subserve  the  interests  of  the  whole 
people. 

2.  "The  classification  of  all  pubUc  lands  is  necessary 
for  their  administration  in  the  interests  of  the  people. 

3.  "The  timber,  the  minerals,  and  the  surface  of  the 
pubHc  lands  should  be  disposed  of  separately. 

4-  "  PubUc  lands  more  valuable  for  conserving  water 
supply,  timber,  and  natural  beauties  or  wonders  than  for 
agriculture  should  be  withheld  from  aU  .  .  .  except  min- 
eral entry. 

5    "  Title  to  the  surface  of  the  remaining  non-mineral 

pubUc  lands  should  be  granted  only  to  actual  home  makers. 

6.  "  Pending  the  transfer  of  title  to  the  remaining  pubUc 


Conservation  .r^ 

409 

lands  they  should  be  administered  by  the  Government 
and  their  use  should  be  allowed  in  a  way  to  prevent  o" 
trol  waste  and  monopoly."  vcntorcon- 

Our  pubhc  land  laws  as  a  whole  do  not  subserve  the  best 
mterests  of  the  nation,  and  they  should  be  modified  so  far 
as  may  be  required  to  bring  them  into  conformity  with  the 
foregoing  ouUine  of  poUcy.  The  Homestead  Law,  S 
proved  so  beneficial  to  the  settlers  of  the  Middle  West  ^ 
inapphcable  to  the  arid  states,  because  here  irrigatL  ;  a 
««.  guanon  and  this  cannot  be  achieved  without  capital 

IndeftSTo  fiT  '"""  ^''^  recommends  that  no  m^ 
L^  ^f.,     ?  u  "  *  S^^^^-nent  project  without  at  least 
$2000  mth  which  to  make  the  necessary  improvements 
Tunber  for  fuel  and  for  buildmg  purposes^are  c'Lt"  " 
whUe  food  and  family  suppUes  cannot  be  so  readUy  pTo 
vided  as  on  the  pioneer  farms  of  the  Mississippi  VaUey 
The  law  has  ceased  to  be  advantageous  to  home  seeke^' 
and  IS  being  utihzed  by  timber  companies  and  mining  syn-' 

knH     T.  ''""■'  *''•''  '°  '^'Se  tracts  of  forest  and  nineral 
and.     The  process  is  easy ;  homestead  entries  are  made  by 

theemployeesofthecompanyandotherdummyhomestead- 
ei^,  fraudulen  proof  of  residence  is  brought,  and  the  title 
when  secured  is  made  over  to  the  company  f^r  some  smaH 
consid^ation.  Under  the  mineral  land  laws  valuabTede^- 
ZT  ,T  'f '"  "P  by  private  persons  at  mere  nominal 
rates ,  god,  sJver,  copper,  lead  and  zinc  at  the  "  double 

hZT"".  i  *'-^°  '"  """'  ^^^'  ~^'  '^°ds  may  be  had  at 
trom  $10  to  $20  an  acre  according  to  distance  from  market 
and  transportation  facihties.  On  these  very  liberal  terms 
Uie  mineral  resources  of  the  country  are  being  rapidly 
monopohzed.  Seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  iron  ore  in  the 
Lake  Superior  and  south  Appalachian  fields  belongs  to  the 
Urn  ed  States  Steel  Corporation.  The  coal  lands  of  the 
pubhc  domain  m  Utah,  New  Me.xico,  and  Alaska,  are  being 
bough  up  by  the  American  Smelting  Company,  in  defiancf 
ot  the  hmitations  on  the  area  that  may  be  held  by  anv  one 
man  or  group  of  men.  The  mining  of  phosphate  rock,  so 
indispensable  to  the  future  of  agriculture  in  this  coun  ry 


Rept. 
Bureau  of 
Corpora- 
tions, Lumber 
Industry. 


National 

Conservation 
Com., 
I.  90-05; 
III,  387-417, 
571. 


Investigation 
of  Dept.  of 
Interior 
and  Forestry 
Service. 


fill 


410      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

is  not  as  yet  covered  by  the  law.    The  Eastern  deposits  have 
passed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  central  government,  but 
*  there  are  large  deposits  on  the  public  domain,  in  Utah, 

Wyoming,  and  Colorado  where  future  demand  will  be  great. 
In  the  granting  of  claims  to  these  phosphate  lands  the  sur- 
face title  should  be  separated  from  the  mining  rights,  so  that 
arable  areas  can  be  homesteaded,  while  the  mining  rights 
should  be  leased,  not  sold,  with  stipulations  as  to  royalty 
payment,  conservation  of  waste,  and  non  exportation  of 
the  product.  The  maximum  price  of  coal  lands  should 
be  raised  in  proportion  to  the  royalty  that  might  be  de- 
rived if  they  were  private  property. 

The  protection  of  the  rights  of  the  people  in  the  pubhc 
domain  is  far  more  important  than  the  immediate  exploita- 
tion of  its  wealth.  Private  enterprise  should  be  encouraged  ; 
not  so  private  monopoly.  Public  ownership  and  operation 
of  coal  lands,  water  power,  etc.,  find  few  advocates ;  but 
pubHc  control  and  legislative  limits  on  private  enterprise 
are  essential  to  the  future  well-being  of  our  nation.  In  the 
message  above  quoted.  President  Roosevelt  said  truly,  "  If 
we  allow  great  industrial  organizations  to  exercise  unregu- 
lated control  of  the  means  of  production  and  the  necessa- 
ries of  hfe,  we  deprive  the  Americans  of  to-day  and  of  the 
future  of  industrial  liberty,  a  right  no  less  precious  and 
vital  than  poUtical  freedom.  Industrial  hberty  was  a  fruit 
of  political  liberty,  and  in  turn  has  become  one  of  its  chief 
supports  ;  and  exactly  as  we  stand  for  political  democracy, 
so  we  must  stand  for  industrial  democracy." 
National  The  Conservation  of  Water  Power. — In  view  of  the 

Conservation  early  exhaustion  of  the  coal  measures,  the  utilization  of  the 
motor  power  latent  in  our  rivers  becomes  a  problem  of  the 
utmost  importance.  The  direct  use  of  water  power  through 
the  medium  of  the  water  wh  el  has  been  practised  for  a 
thousand  years,  but  the  transformation  of  this  gravity  pro- 
peller into  electrical  energy  is  the  achievement  of  the  pres- 
ent generation.  By  turbine  wheels,  dynamos,  and  trans- 
formers, the  force  of  falling  water  is  converted  into  energy 
which  may  be  transmitted  along  a  cable  to  distant  mines, 


Conservation 


411 


Com.,  II, 
141-179. 


factones  transportation  and  lighting  systems,  so  that  re- 
mote and  maccessible  mountain  torrents  are  made  to  serve 
populous  cities.     The  present  limit  of  distance  is  one  hun-   Hutrh- 
dred  and  sixty-five  miles,  but  this  wHl  soon  be  extended.   ^Tn    "°^' 
Niagara  Falls  to-day  furnishes  light  and  power  to  Buffalo    ^'^^^^^^ 
Rochester,  and  Toronto.     In  the  near  future  this  might^  ?^«kns 
force  may  be  earned  five  hundred  mHes,  as  far  as  Norfolk    ^^o- 
Va.,   and  Detroit,   Mich.     The  generation  of  hydrauhc 
power  has  been  carried  to  its  highest  development  on  the 
Pacific  coast.     The  torrential  rivers  of  the  Sierras  and  the 
Cascades  furnish  one  third  the  water  power  of  the  United 
States  and  this  latent  source  of  industrial  energy  is  being 
utihzed  to  the  very  best  advantage.     One  miner's  inch  of 
water  is  made  to  generate  energy  equivalent  to  three  and  a 
third  umts  of  horse  power.     Since  the  cost  of  developing 
electricity  by  water  power  is  fifteen  per  cent  less  than  the 
cost  by  steam,  this  new  industrial  factor  augurs  much  for 
the  future  of  the  Pacific  states. 

^  An  electric  power  plant  requires  Httle  labor,  but  expen- 
sive machinery  and  a  great  capital  investment.       This 
IS  not  an  enterprise  therefo^-e  with  which  settlers  as  indi- 
viduals  or  in  association  can  do  much,  but  it  offers  an 
attractive  field  for  corporate  capital.  The  tendency  toward 
concentration  of   ownership  in  water  power  plants  has 
been  marked  in  the  past  decade.     The  estimate  made 
by  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  in  January 
1909,  mdicated  that  thirty-three  per  cent  of  the  developed 
power  (i  827,000  H.P.  out  of  5,300,000  H.P.)  is  owned 
or  controlled  by  thirteen  principal  syndicates.     When  one 
reahzes  that  within  one  hundred  years  all   the  wheels 
and  engines  of  the  United  States  must  be  run  by  electric 
motors,  and  that  even  now  the  industries  of  the  Cordilleran 
region  are  wholly  dependent  upon  this  source  of  power  the 
tolly  of  mtrusting  the  disposition  of  hydrauhc  energV  to 
private  hands  without  restriction  becomes  evident.    We  are 
only  just  now  awaking  to  the  fact  that  power  sites  should  be 
leased,  not  sold  or  given  away,  and  that  the  privilege  of 
using  this  natural  source  of  wealth  should  be  granted  on 


i 


United 
States 


412      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

terms  that  will  conserve  the  rights  of  the  public  to  adequate 

service  at  a  reasonable  charge.     The  Federal  government 

has  supervision  of  interstate  waterways,  navigable  rivers, 

and  streams  that  flow  through  the  national  forests  or  the 

public  domain,  and  may  therefore  determine  the  conditions 

under  which  torrents  and  cataracts  occurring  within  this 

President's      jurisdiction  may  be  used.     The  law  of  iqoC)  vested  in  Con- 

Un^^^f^i        gress  the  disposition  of  all  such  water  powers,  and  that 

Water '       '   these  grants  might  be  made  conditional  on  the  meeting  of 

Power  in  the  certain  specifications,  as  in  the  case  of  other  franchises, 

TTmfoH  111 

^  would  seem  to  be  a  reasonable  inference.  Acting  on  this 
supposition,  President  Roosevelt  vetoed  bills  conceding 
rights  to  construct  dams  and  develop  power  on  the  Rainy 
River,  Minn.,  and  the  James  River,  Mo.,  stating  his  con- 
viction that  every  hcense  should  be  granted  for  a  limited 
term,  fifty  years  at  the  utmost,  that  each  grant  should  be 
revocable  if  the  intention  to  utiUze  possibilities  to  the  full 
was  not  made  sure,  and  that  fees  be  imposed,  adjusted  to 
the  earning  capacity  of  the  plant. 

Conservation  Challenged.  —  President  Roosevelt's  ad- 
ministration was  pledged  heart  and  soul  to  the  conserva- 
tion of  national  resources.  The  more  Uteral  interpretation 
of  the  laws  under  which  the  Forestry  Service,  the  Rec- 
lamation Service,  and  the  Land  OflSce  were  operating, 
has  given  rise  to  widespread  suspicion  of  lukewarmness  in 
this  cause  on  the  part  of  President  Taft's  api)ointees.  The 
cancelling  of  the  water  scrip  agreement  has  brought  dis- 
tress upon  the  homesteaders  on  the  government  irrigation 
projects,  the  appropriation  made  for  the  rangers'  schools 
has  been  withdrawn,  the  practice  of  setting  aside  rangers' 
stations  in  the  national  forests  has  been  denounced,  the 
James  River  bill  has  again  been  brought  forward  in  the 
Senate,  the  good  faith  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in 
clear-listing  certain  coal  claims  in  Alaska,  suspected  of  being 
fraudulent,  has  been  questioned,  and  the  President's  right 
to  withdraw  lands  from  homestead  entry  in  the  public  in- 
terest has  been  challenged.  The  pros  and  cons  have  been 
fully  brought  out  in  a  Congressional  investigation  of  the 


Conservation 


413 


Department  of  the  Interior  and  the  Bureau  of  Forestry 
The  result  may  be  regarded  as  inconclusive,  because  of  the 
fundamenta  difference  of  opinion  between  the  men  who 
beheve  m  allowmg  the  greatest  possible  freedom  to  Ti- 
vidual  enterprise  and  those  who  hold  that  private  interests 
must  be  regulated  where  the  public  well-being  needs  to  be 
guarded.  Congress  has  gone  far  toward  committing  the 
government  to  the  policy  of  control  by  authorizing  the 
President  to  withdraw  pubUc  lands  from  private  use  tern! 
poranly  or  permanently,  whenever  the  conservation  of 
forests  or  grazing  lands,  water  power,  irrigation  possibih- 

n^;  -fw^^r'^J.'  ^^'"^'^  ^^  ^^  ^t  ^t^ke.  In  accord- 
ance with  this  law.  President  Taft  has  withdrawn  (1910) 
from  mineral  entry  71,500,000  acres  of  public  lands  sup- 
posed to  contam  coal,  phosphate,  or  petroleum,  or  to  fur- 
msh  valuable  water  power  sites.  All  this  land  is  open  to 
agricultural  entiy,  but  the  terms  on  which  mining  and 
development  rights  will  be  conceded  are  yet  to  be  deter- 
mined by  Congress. 


I 


Suggestions  to  Teachers 
lie  industrial  history  of  the  United  States  is  a  lat^e  and  comnW 

:^thS  thf  liTtatL?  ^  rr^"'  "'-t'ngfnd^nsr^  : 
mtmn  the  lunitat  ons  of  a  textlwolc.  The  author  cannot  do  more 
than  um,sh  a  sl^eleton  which  the  instructor  must  clothe  and^tX 
with  the  means  best  suited  to  his  students.  Their  caliber  wmlT 
te,mme  the  character  of  lectures  and  supplementary  TeX 
JZ  ^''-^^^ool  students,  local  history  and  familiar  ^nditions 

aevelopment.  The  number  of  publications  treatine  local  historv 
from  die  economic  standpoint  is  fortunately  on  the  fncr^  Such 
material  may  be  culled  from  the  numerous  town  and  sSIT^istori^ 

such'wT  P'^"°-P«-'  ■'<  ■»»-  g»eral  treatae"  ^y  b^td  b 
such  works  as  Weeden,  Economic  and  Social  History  of  nL  En^ 

f  Vi g^r^icc^r'  °l^--nr^^  ^''"^^'  EclSistfy 
o  NoSh  r  ^,':'^^y.'  H'^'°'y  °i  South  Carolina;  Rapes,  History 
P  emmtbS  rot'  ^r*°«..  Economic  History 'of  the  South  (n 
preparation) ;   Coman,  Economic  History  of  the  Far  West  Cm  nr^n, 

xugnway  series  and  by  such  monographs  as  Ward's  Chesaoeake 
and  Ohio  Canal;    Benton's  Wabash  Trade  Route     Th.^fTr 
water  transportation  is  graphically  depTcT^^n  O^:;  T^e  0  '  Ih^  : 
ae  Mi^issipp,;   Matthews,  Remaking  of  the  Mi^sissi^pifS 

prl^Xb^^b/p^-'^-^-^i- 

H^Z'trtT  "'  °"  P""^'P=^  "™-'  ^■*-  thereto  ,  the 
Setlr^o     T^rr,'-  "'  ,'"''^"^'  *^  OI^O'  "•«  Co'™^bt 

mzers  as  Penn  and  Oglethorpe,  such  statesmen  as  Franklin 

415 


I 


416      Industj'ial  History  of  the  United  States 

Washington,  Jefferson,  Gallatin,  Clay,  Benton,  Lincoln,  Roosevelt, 
such  modern  captains  of  industry  as  McCormick,  McBCay,  Cyrus 
Field,  Edison,  Harriman,  Rockefeller,  J.  J.  Hill,  J.  P.  Morgan. 

Moreover,  the  industrial  novel  is  not  to  be  despised,  provided  it 
is  based  on  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  conditions  depicted.  The 
following  are  suggested. 

BisLAND,  A  Candle  of  Understanding  (a  sugar  plantation  in 
Louisiana) ;  Churchill,  The  Crossing  (pioneer  days  in  Kentucky) ; 
FooTE,  Coeur  d'Alene  (the  silver  miners  of  Idaho) ;  Glasgow,  The 
Deliverance  (a  tobacco  plantation  in  Virginia) ;  Kemp,  Matt,  Boss 
Tom  (the  anthracite  coal  miners) ;  Kingsley,  Westward  Ho  (Eng- 
lish buccaneers  on  the  Spanish  Main) ;  Norms,  The  Octopus  (the 
wheat  ranches  of  California);  The  Pit  (the  wheat  market  of 
Chicago);  Parkes,  The  Magnetic  North  (gold  seekers  in  Alaska); 
Richardson,  The  Long  Day  (women  wage-earners  in  New  York); 
Sinclair,  The  Jungle  (beef  packers  of  Chicago);  Stimson,  F.  J., 
King  Noanet  (indentured  servants  in  colonial  Vu-ginia  and  town 
lands  in  Massachusetts);  Benton,  On  Many  Seas  (the  American 
sailor's  experiences) ;  Winter,  A  Prize  to  the  Hardy  (wheat  farms  of 
Minnesota) ;  Wright,  Where  Copper  was  King  (copper  mining  on 
Lake  Superior) ;  Coolidge,  Hidden  Water  (cattle  and  sheep  wars  in 
Arizona) ;    Garland.  The  Forest  Ranger ;  The  Lion's  Paw. 

Biography,  autobiography,  and  journals  of  travel  may  be  even 
more  illuminating,  e.g.  Bruce,  H.  A.,  Daniel  Boone  and  the  Wilder- 
ness Road;  Dana,  Two  Years  before  the  Mast;  DuBois,  Souls  of 
Black  Folk;  Washington,  Up  from  Slavery;  Woolman's  Journal; 
Franklin's  Autobiography;  Sherman,  Recollections  of  Forty 
Years;  Van  Vorst,  The  Woman  Who  Toils;  Talbot,  Samuel 
Chapman  Armstrong;  James  Flint,  Letters  from  America;  Bra- 
BECK,  Journey  in  America;  Timothy  Flint,  Recollections  of  the 
Last  Ten  Years;  Martineau,  Society  in  America;  Chevalier, 
United  States;    Bowles,  Across  the  Continent. 

Local  interest  may  render  advisable  the  study  of  a  special  indus- 
try, agricultural,  manufacturing,  or  commercial,  and  for  this  some 
excellent  treatises  are  available,  e.g. :  — 

Hammond,  The  Cotton  Culture  and  the  Cotton  Trade;  Bailey's 
Cyclopedia  of  Agriculture  (for  corn,  rice,  cattle,  sheep,  etc.) ;  Dond- 
linger,  Book  of  Wheat ;  Edgar,  Story  of  a  Grain  of  Wheat;  Cas- 
SON,  Romance  of  the  Reaper;  Defebaugh,  History  of  the  Lumber 
Industry;  Bruncken,  North  American  Forests  and  Forestry; 
McLaurin,  Sketches  in  Crude  Oil ;  Montague,  Rise  and  Progress 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Compan>' .  Tarbell,  History  of  the  Standard 
Oil  Company;  Shinn,  Story  of  the  Mine;  Weed,  Copper  Mines 
of  the  World;  Swank,  History  of  the  Manufacture  of  Iron  in  all 
Ages;  Virtue,  Minnesota  Iron  Ranges;   Casson,  Romance  of  Stt-el; 


Suggestions  to  Teachers 


417 
BRroGE,  Carnegie  Steel  Company  •    Grefkf    r.  i       a    . 
Mmes;   Nicolls,  Story  of  AmerFcai  Co^kp  ^""^  ^^'   ^°^^ 

cite  Coal  Industry    bLbin  Th?R    f  t  '   ^^^^^^s.  The  Anthra- 
the  Cowboy;   Ada^s   Loe  of  ^^    '^  '^^ '   Hough,  Story  of 

Merchant  MartneriNMAN  The  cTe^J^^^  ^TT^  ^^^  ^^^^^^ 
Santa  F6  Trail-  Laut  Th^  ^l  TJ'^}^  ^^^^  Trail;  The  Old 
tile  Industries  oit^I'^^ll'Z^l  "^^  ^^^P^^'  Bagnall.  Tex- 
America;  North  A  Snturv  u.  f''.'^^^'^'  ^"^  ^^^^^^^^  ^^ 
Wool  Griwing  and  the  Tar^T^I  Wool  Manufacture ;  Wright, 
the  Cotton  MiU  Stubbs  The^  ^f !!'  ^'°°^  "^^  C«"°"  F^eld  to 
Industry.  '      ^^^^'  ^^"  ^"^^^  ^^^ustry;   Taussig,  The  Iron 

di^duSi^rf^^^^^^^^^^  ™d  for  in. 

supplementary  study.  tollowmg  topics  are  suggested  for 

Chapter  I. 

VIII.  ^^°    *°   America,    Ch.    VI,  VII, 

the  V^L^af  Ra'„^:K  t^'^'t''^  "  '"^  ^^^  •— 
and  its  GeographirS:du"ch1-  m""''  ^'""'-"  "'^'"^ 

na?il'':jS^esTL'"l  Jn'Lrr  """^"  '""^  "'«-  '"^ 
History,  Ch.  XIV  XV  ^       ^'^^^'  ^^^  °'  American 

(s)  Account  for  the  failure  n(  c««:„'        1     • 
Coa<it  anH  ■•„  o„?-r    •      't    "        ''P*'"  ^  colonies  along  the  Gulf 
coast  and  in  California.    Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations  Bk  IV  Ch  vn 

V;  w°'^l^'  ^P"'"  '"  ^°''^  ^'""'<^'  Ch.  Xlli-XIX  ' 

of  climate'  »il   "ZT,"'  *'  '^"«"^''  ^°'<"''<=^  "^"^  '«  advantages 
the  CrLTnduSria r'fiT^^''^  T"""^™"'  "PP^^-nities,  or^to 

Man  in  Americ^,"SU     ■'"'''  """"'    ^^^'''  ""'""'  ""^ 

^^.u\rZ"t  'Z^'T  "'  ^  ''"'■=''  ^"'  I"'"''  Company. 

Chapter  II. 

Lord  Salisb^rTZem^iT,?    /rT  "'*  *<=  ""'"'I''  "t 
^.otives  were^^ro=T<.ttl.tt  t!'^;  ,^X^ 


I 


w 


ill 
III 


m 


, 


418      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

Western  Planting;   White,  The  Planter's  Plea;    Bacon's  Essay  on 
Plantations. 

(2)  Compare  the  powers  and  functions  of  the  London  and  Ply- 
mouth Companies  with  those  of  the  East  India  Company.  Why  did 
the  former  fail  to  develop  profitable  trade?  Os(;ood,  Vol.  I,  Pt.  I, 
Ch.  V;  Hewins,  Trading  C'ompanies,  pp.  55-72;  Cheyney,  Euro- 
pean Background,  Ch.  VIII. 

(3)  Why  did  the  associations  of  adventurers  succeed  in  establish- 
ing permanent  colonies?  Tyler,  England  in  America,  Ch.  XI,  XII, 
XIV,  XV. 

(4)  Was  the  communism  of  the  initial  stages  of  a  colonial  enter- 
prise based  on  theory  or  on  practical  necessity?  Adams,  Village 
Communities;  Bradford,  Plimouth  Plantations,  pp.  56-58,  162-168, 
176-178. 

(5)  Indicate  the  feudal  features  of  the  proprietary  grant.  What 
were  its  advantages  to  the  proprietor?  to  the  colonist?  Why  did 
this  form  of  colonial  undertaking  fail?  Osgood,  Vol.  II,  Pt.  Ill, 
Ch.  II. 

(6)  The  several  forms  of  land  .tenure  prevailing  in  the  colonial 
period,  communal,  feudal,  and  fee  simple.  What  were  the  gains, 
social  and  economic,  in  acquisition  by  "head  right"?  by  "cabin 
right"?  Compare  the  acquisition  of  title  under  the  Virginia  law 
of  1705  with  the  right  of  homestead  entry.  Beverley,  History  of 
Virginia,  Ch.  XII;  Bruce,  Economic  History  of  Virginia,  Vol.  I, 
Ch.  VIII;  Osgood,  Vol.  I,  Pt.  II,  Ch.  XI;   Vol.  II,  Pt.  Ill,  Ch.  II. 

(7)  Was  the  Cavalier,  the  Roundhead,  or  the  Leveler  the  most 
successful  type  of  colonist?  Bradford,  pp.  in,  121,  137-161,  178- 
184,  283-292. 

(8)  What  were  the  sources  of  labor  supply  open  to  the  colonial 
entrepreneur?  Compare  the  economic  status  of  the  indentured 
servant  with  that  of  the  slave,  the  free  immigrant.  Kddis,  Letters 
from  America,  pp.  63-89 ;  Kalm,  Travels  into  North  America,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  387-397;  Weld,  Travels,  Vol.  I,  pp.  120-124;  Bruce,  Vol.  I,  ; 
Ch.  IX,  X;    Geiser,  Redemptioners  and  Indentured  Servants. 

(9)  How  far  was  the  prevalence  of  slave  lal)or  in  the  South  due 
to  climate,  staple  crops,  aristocratic  form  of  land  tenure?  Banks, 
Land  Tenure  in  Georgia,  pp  11-29 ;  Michaux,  Travels,  pp.  290-306. 

Chapter  III. 

(i)  Compare  the  opportunities  of  a  farmer  in  eighteenth-century 
America  with  those  he  had  in  England.  American  Husbandry, 
Vol.  I,  pp.  61-73,  86-93,  1 15-123,  184-215,  249-255,  327-329,  429- 
433 ;   Vol.  II,  pp.  14-20. 

(2)  Compare  the  opportunities  ofiFered  by  the  several  colonies 
(fl)  to  the  emancipated  servant ;  (6)  to  the  man  of  capital.  Doyle, 
English  Colonies,  Vol.  I,  pp.  381-395;   Vol.  Ill,  pp.  1-52;  Vol.  IV. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers  419 

Vol  'm'fo'  If.!;  ^^w'^'"''^'  ^"-^^7;    Franklin's  Works, 
PP  281  339  ^^'    WiNTERBOTHAM,  United  States,  Vol.  Illi 

(3)   Indicate  the  sources  and  distribution  of  i^tration  to  the 
v^o'cSA^Vt?^^^^^^^  ^^°^-^-    GR-NE,%rl' 

t^}SJ^T'^^  England's  colonial  policy.     How  far  was  it  fur- 
thered by  the  natural  resources  of  the  several  colonies  ?    With  wh^t 

^^LlTk'^I^'rJ'vrrr^^^^        ^-  Smith,  wlai;': 

rSoh  Ch  m     A      '•'^''  5'  u"""^^^'  Preliminaries  of  the 
J^evoiution,  Ch.  Ill;   American  Husbandry,  Vol.  I,  pp    r8-6o   x2a~ 

AsH^Y,  England's  Commercial  PoUcy,  Vol.  II,  pp.      'l^    ^^  ^   ' 

(6)   Estimate  the  effect  of  restraints  imposed  on  the  manufacture 

of  woolens   hats,  iron  goods,  on  the  exportation  of  tob" W^e 

these  disadvantages  offset  by  remission  of  import  duties  and  bT^! 

vT  osiz:^Tktz'::r'''  ""^^ "  ^"^^-^'  ^"^^^ 

co^lr^Z  /r  ^"^^  '^'-  Navigation  Act  as  supplemented  in  1663 

Pla^tW  '    wL^hT'T'  ^"'^  '"^^^^'^^  ^^  «^^^^^^'«  Wester^ 
Wanting?    Weigh  the  advantage  and  disadvantage  to  the  colonies 

We^L""lT?-  '^  ^.r^  ^^^P^  '^^^  ^--^--  ^'^-    Adam  Smxxh 
Weahh  of  Nations   Bk,  IV,  Ch.  VII,  Pt.  HI;   Andrews,  ColoSd 

/«f  ,1^"'°'^''^'  ^^-  ^'   ^'^°^°'  Vol.  Ill,  Pt.  IV,  Ch.  VH 
n,  I   ™^t  considerable  exports  were  not  enumerated?   and  what 
^\  ..t^  '^'^  ^^^^    ^^^^^^'  Vol.  I,  pp.  142-164. 

(9)   What  was  the  bearing  of  the  Molasses  Act  ?    Beer    Com- 
mercial Pohcy,  Ch.  VI.     What  colonies  were  most  seriously  ^ffect'd 

2ll  PoH^I^ChTl  ""^  '^'  '''^''  ''^'^'-     ^^^^''  ^"'''^  ^^^^ 

wif^^fw'^Ti.T'^  the  specie  currency  experience  of  colonial  Virginia 
with  that  of  Massachusetts.     Ripley,  Financial  History  of  Virdnia 
pp.  153-162;   Sumner,  History  of  American  Currency,  pp.  14-43.    ' 

chusetts  (a)  by  the  government,  (b)  by  the  land  banks.    Davis. 
currency  and  Banking  in  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  Pt.  I,  II. 

Chapter  IV. 
(i>  Was  the  secession  of  the  American   colonies  due  primarily 


I  i 


■I 


420      Industrial  History  of  the   United  States 

to  the  commercial  restrictions  imposed  by  the  British  government, 
taxation  without  representation,  or  to  maladministration  on  the  part 
of  the  English  officials?  Address  to  the  People  of  Great  Britain, 
Pitkin,  History  of  United  States,  Vol.  I,  pp.  473-482;  Franklin's 
Works,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  407-450;  Ramsay,  History  of  South  Carolina, 
Vol.  I,  Ch.  VI;  Ramsay,  History  of  American  Revolution,  Vol.  I, 
Ch.  I,  II ;  Bassett,  Regulators  of  North  CaroUna ;  Beers,  Colonial 
PoUcy,  Ch.  XIV. 

(2)  Effect  of  the  seven  years  of  nonintercourse  on  manufactures  in 
the  colonies,  on  commerce.  Callender,  Selections,  pp.  439-445; 
Tench  Coxe,  View  of  United  States  of  America. 

(3)  What  did  the  Americans  gain  and  what  did  they  lose  by  in- 
dependence ?  Public  Papers  of  John  Jay,  Vol.  I,  p.  230;  McLaugh- 
lin, Confederation  and  Constitution,  Ch.  V. 

(4)  Was  the  repudiation  of  the  !)ills  of  credit  inevitable  ?  Shuckei, 
Revolutionary  Finances;  McLaughlin,  Confederation  and  Consritu- 
tion,  Ch.  IV,  IX ;  Bullock,  Finances  of  the  Revolution ;  Sumner, 
Finances  and  Financiers  of  the  Revolution,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  IV. 

(5)  Account  for  the  failure  of  the  first  anti-slavery  movement. 
Tucker,  Dissertation  on  Slavery;  Dubois,  Suppression  of  the 
Slave  Trade,  Ch.  II,  III,  IV;  Locke,  Anti-Slavery  in  America; 
Brissot  de  Warville,  Travels  in  United  States,  pp.  274-300. 

Legislation  against  the  Slave  Trade;  Collins,  Domestic  Slave 
Trade,  Ch.  I. 

(6)  Compare  the  opportunities  of  the  pioneer  farmer  in  Kentucky 
with  those  of  the  colonist  on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  Imlay,  Western 
Territory,  p.  130;   American  Husbandry,  Vol.  I,  Ch.  XVIII. 

(7)  Illustrate  the  economic  foresight  of  George  Washington;  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  Index  to  Works  of  Washington,  jEfFERSON, 
imder  titles  land,  roads,  farming,  slavery,  emigration,  etc. 

(8)  Trace  the  democratization  of  land  tenure  consequent  on  the 
Revolution.  Randall,  Life  of  Jefferson,  Vol.  I,  pj).  194-229,  397- 
400;  Hamilton's  Report  on  Public  Lands ;   Cheney,  Land  Tenure. 

Chapter  V. 

(i)  Franklm's  views  on  the  rights  of  neutral  trade.  Works, 
Vol.  VIII,  p.  246;  Vol.  X,  p.  60.  How  far  have  they  been  vin- 
dicated?   Schuyler,  American  Diplomacy,  Ch.  V. 

(2)  Hamilton's  views  on  banking,  on  manufactures,  on  the  place 
of  agriculture  in  national  economy,  on  the  sources  from  which  a 
labor  supply  would  be  derived.  How  far  do  they  correspond  with 
modem  opinion  ?    Hamilton's  reports  on  Manufactures,  on  Banking. 

(3)  Show  that  the  dominant  purpose  of  our  commercial  policy 
before  the  War  of  181 2  was  the  promotion  of  the  shipping  interest. 
What  was  the  result  for  (a)  the  mercantile  marine ;    (*)  the  develop- 


Suggcstions  to  Teachers 


421 


ment  of  our  foreign  trade;  (c)  the  foreign  market  for  agricultural 
products,  timber,  cotton,  wheat;  {d)  the  exploitation  of  our  natural 
resources,  e.g.  of  the  Mississippi  VaUey  ?  Pitkin,  History  of  the 
Umted  States. 

(4)  What  was  the  effect  of  the  protection  accorded  to  manufac- 
tures on  (a)  the  Federal  revenues,  Dewey,  Financial  History  of 
United  States;  %  the  invention  of  machinery.  Bishop,  Vol  I  38s- 
423;  (c)  utilization  of  the  waste  labor  of  women  and  children  Ab- 
bott, Women  in  Industry,  Ch.  II ;  Tench  Coxe,  View  of  the  United 
States. 

(5)  What  were  the  conditions  in  England  that  induced  emigration 
to  the  Umted  States  ?     Birbeck,  Notes  on  a  Journey  to  America 
pp.  8-10,  42,  56-62,   155-157;    CmcKERiNG,  Foreign  Emigration 
(footnotes  on  English  conditions). 

(6)  The  movement  of  population  to  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  lUinois- 
how  far  was  its  direction  influenced  by  the  poUcy  of  the  Federal 
government  as  to  (a)  slavery,  Birbeck,  pp.  6,  7 ;  {h)  disposition  of 
public  lands,  pp.  70-71;  (c)  transportation  facilities,  pp.  31-42- 
Flint,  Letters  pp.  64-82.  How  far  by  geographic  conditions? 
Semple,  Ch.  IV,  V. 

^  (7)  Compare  the  conditions  prevailing  in  and  character  of  migra- 
tion to  the  Mississippi  Territory.  Haskins,  Yazoo  Land  Com- 
panies. 

(8)  Estimate  the  influence  of  cotton  culture  in  fastening  slave 
labor  on  the  Gulf  states.  Hammond,  Cotton  Culture,  Ch  II  in- 
Collins,  Slave  Trade,  Ch.  II.  •      '        » 

(9)  The  effect  of  the  liberal  public  land  policy  on  the  scarcity  of 
hired  labor.  Smith,  Wealth  of  Nations,  Bk.  IV,  Ch.  VII  Pt  II- 
Birbeck,  pp.  93-94,  156-158;    Chevalier,  p.  144.  '      '      » 

Chapter  VI. 

(i)  Contrast  the  effects  of  the  embargo  in  New  England  and 
Virgima;    Marvin,  American  Merchant  Marine,  Ch   VII-    Pitkin 

?i' wt''1,^;5t   ^"""^"^   ^^^^^''     Channing,   Jeffersonian   System] 
^n.  A.V1,  XVII. 

(2)  Compare  the  immediate  consequences  of  the  War  of  181 2 
with  its  ultimate  consequences,  commercial,  industrial,  and  diplo- 
maUc.     Schuyler,  American  Diplomacy,  Ch.  V,  IX. 

(3)  Discuss  the  advisability  of  substituting  reciprocity  of  trade 
for  the  differential  advantages  hitherto  accorded  to  United  States 
shippmg.    Marvin,  Ch.  IX;  Pitkin,  Statistical  View,  Ch.  IV,  VIII. 

(4)  Compare  the  War  of  181 2  with  the  Revolutionary  War  in 
effect  on  manufactures.     Bagnall,  Textile  Industries,  Vol.  I,  Ch 
VIII,  X,  XI;   Swank,  Iron  in  all  Ages,  Vol.  XIX,  XX. 

(5)  Conflict  of  interests  in  our  first  epoch  of  protection.     Taussig, 


422      Industrial  History  of  the  United  Stales 

I^^L^T"^  of  the  United  States,  Ch.  II;    .\«erjcan  State 
Papers  Finance,  Vol.  II,  pp.  367,  465;   Vol.  Ill,  pp.  32,  5^,  55,  85- 

IL;!Lett:S;roL  ^^  ''''    '"'•  '''•  ''^'''-  *«^'    S'«'   '"• 
Representative  views,  Callenuer,  Ch.  X. 

(6)  Compare  the  duties  imposed  on  cottons,  woolens,  iron  manu- 
factures cordage,  and  the  raw  materials  thereof,  in  the  tariffs  of 
1812    1816,  1820,  1824,  1828,  1832.    Official  Tariff  Compilation. 

(7)  Estimate  the  failures  and  successes  of  the  second  National 
Bank.    Dewey,  Second  National  E[ank;    Conant,  Banks  of  Issue 
PP- 340-357;    Catterall,  Second  National  Bank 

ni^L^x"'  ^f  f  fr  ""^  '^'  "^''''^  ^^  '^'^'  C^«^^'  The  Crisis; 
W^t  Ch  K  ^^'  ''^■"''    ^""^^^  ^'"^  °^  '^"  ^"^ 

(9)  Compare  banking  methods  east  and  west  of  tlie  AUeghenies  • 
Conant,  Banks  of  Issue,  Ch.  XIV;  Flint,  Letters  from  America' 
PP-  130-136,  225,  238,  274,  297. 

(10)  Estimate  the  speculative  element  in  the  westward  move- 
ment. MiCHAUx,  Travels  to  the  Westward  of  the  Allegheny  Moun- 
tams,  pp.  188-194;  Flint,  Letters,  pp.  64-82,   97,  387;    Birbeck. 

}T^^^<n^<rJV^^f'  'l"^''^''  '^'~'^^'  Turner,  The  New  West, 
Ch.  V,  VI,  VII.  Was  this  fostered  by  the  land  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment? t-       J  6 

(11)  Compare  the  New  Englander  and  the  Virginian  as  pioneers. 
Chevalier,  United  States,  pp.  109-120.  i-        «• 

Chapter  VII. 

(i)  Effect  of  machinery  on  manufactures,  on  growth  of  towns 
on  conditions  of  labor.    Montgomery,  Cotton  Manufacture-   Che' 

^^^'/^'r'"^"'^^'  137-144;  Wright,  Factory  System;  Census 
1880,  Manufactures. 

(2)  Exhaustion  of  the  farms  of  New  England  and  New  York- 
resort  to  improved  agriculture.  Buell,  American  Husbandry- 
MARTmEAU,  Society  in  America,  Vol.  I,  pp.  290-307;  Stuart! 
Three  Years  m  North  America,  \'ol.  I,  Ch.  XII. 

(3)  Exhaustion  of  the  plantations  of  the  southern  seaboard  states  ■ 
persistence  of  one  crop  agriculture.  Phillips,  Plantation  and  Fron- 
tier, Vol.  I,  pp.  55-57;  Olmstead,  Cotton  Kingdom,  Vol.  I,  Ch  IV 

(4)  Relation  of  cotton  culture  to  (a)  the  westward  movement  of 
population,  c/.  population  charts  in  United  States  Census,  1870- 
W  prosecution  of  the  slave  trade.  Dubois,  Suppression  of  the  Slave 
1  rade. 

Reflex  influence  on  the  development  of  the  upper  Mississippi 
Valley.  Flint,  Recollections  of  the  Last  Ten  Years,  pp.  n-17  loi- 
III ;   Birbeck,  pp.  102-105.  ^  ^J/' ^"^ 


Suggestions  to  Teachers 


423 


(5)  Quadrilateral  commerce  arising  out  of  the  territorial  division 
of  labor  between  the  Old  South,  the  New  South,  New  England  and 
the  West.     Callender,  Selections,   Ch.   VII;    Lambert    Travels 
Vol.  II,  pp.  146-151,  346-348.  '  '  * 

(6)  The  transportation  system  of  the  United  States,  natural 
and  artifiaal.    The  adequacy  of  water  transportation     Chevalier 

■  Letter  XXI ;   Callender,  Ch.  VIII.  ' 

(7)  Effect  of  steam  navigation  on  transportation  in  the  West. 
Chevalier,  pp.  212-224;    Birbeck,  pp.  150-153. 

(8)  Note  limitations  on  charges  for  transportation  and  use  in- 
corporated in  charters  granted  to  postroad  and  canal  companies 
Tanner,  Internal  Improvements.     Compare  m  this  respect  early 
railway  charters;  Meyer,  Railway  Legislation,  Pt.  II,  Ch  I  Aooen- 
dixL  '      -    >    Fi^" 

(9)  Financing  of  internal  improvements.  MacDonald  Jack- 
sonian  Democracy,  Ch.  VIII;  Callender,  Early  Transportation 
and  Bankmg  Enterprises;  Morris,  Internal  Improvements  in  Ohio- 
Weaver,  Internal  Improvements  in  North  Carolma;  Putnam* 
Economic  History  of  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal.  ' 

(10)  The  advantages  of  the  raikoad  over  water  transportation. 
Lardner,  Railway  Economy. 

(11)  Economic  Influence   of  the  Erie   Canal.    Hulburt,  Great 
Amencan  Canals,  Vol.  I;    Hill,  Waterways  and  Canal  Construc- 
tion in  New  York  State;   Stuart,  Three  Years  in  North  America 
Vol.  I,  Ch.  IV,  V.  ' 

Chapter  VHI. 

(i)  Character  of  immigration  between  1820  and  i860,  and  atti- 
tude of  the  American  pubUc  regarding  it.  Chickering,  Foreign 
Immigration;  Smith,  Emigration  and  Immigration,  Ch.  II,  III  • 
Franklin,  Legislative  History  of  Naturalization.  '         ' 

(2)  Economic  effects  of  slavery  on  (a)  immigration;  (6)  agri- 
culture; (c)  manufactures;  (d)  commerce.  Callender,  Selec- 
tions, Ch.  XV;  Ingle,  Southern  Sidelights;  Russell.  North 
America,  Ch.  VIII,  X. 

(3)  The  movement  represented  in  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  Speeches  of  Henry  Clay,  January  20,  1827,  December  17, 
1829;  DeBow,  Southern  and  Western  States,  Vol.  II,  pp.  234,  267, 
309-310,  342;   Martineau,  Society  in  America,  Vol.  I,  pp.  345-395! 

(4)  Account  for  the  opposition  of  Southern  statesmen  to  (a)  pro- 
tective tariffs;  (b)  ship  subsidies;  (c)  internal  improvements  at 
national  expense.  DeBow's  Review,  see  Index;  Ballagh,  Tariff 
and  Public  Lands  in  the  South;  Taussig,  State  Papers  and  Speeches 
on  the  Tariff,  pp.  108-213 ;  Phillips,  Plantation  and  Frontier  II 
330-343-  '     ' 


I 


424      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

(5)  Animus  of  the  political  battle  over  the  annexation  of  Texas? 
was  It  anti-slavery  or  anti-expansion  ?  Compare  division  of  parties 
STER's  S^  ^S^r  '^^'^-    ^^''^''''^  Thirty  Years'  View;    Web- 

n,itl  T?.^,^°^^<^,^  Ch^ch  as  an  experiment  in  cooperation.     Ban- 
CROFT,  History  of  Utah. 

(7)  New  goals  of  the  westward  migration,  (a)  Missouri.  Flint 
Recollections;    {h)  Oregon,  Schafer,  Pacific  Northwest.     Why  were 

Tr^l'^^T'  ''^f'l  ^f  ^'  ^^^^^^  '^^^^^^    P^^^SH,  Great  Plams; 
Turner,  Rise  of  the  New  West,  Ch.  VIII. 

(8)  Financing  of  the  western  raikoads.  Reasons  for  state  and 
national  aid?    Sanborn,  Congressional  Land  Grants   Ch  I  II 

(9)  Advantages  of  a  scientific  classification  of  tariflF  schedules? 
Walkers  argument  in  behalf  of  the  consumer?  Taussig,  State 
Papers  and  Speeches,  pp.  214-257. 

wT  ^^'/'^'^  '^^  ^""^  ^"^^^'  responsible  for  the  prosperity  of 
agriculture?    commerce?    manufactures?    How  much  is  it  to  be 

Levt  Tnt'^r      ^''''''^'^T  '"P"^^  °^  '^^   E°g"^J»   Com  Laws? 

Sfa"fch:^^V:L'^'  ''•  '^'   ^"^^^^^^^'  "^"^"^^^ 

rnv^L^'^"'"^''^'  ^""^  ^""^  ^^^^^'^  *^^  subsidizing  of  steamship  lines. 

(II)   Rise  and  fall  of  traffic  on  the  Mississippi  River.     Dixon 
Tariff  History  of  the  Mississippi  River  System ;  Ogg,  Opening  of  the 
Mississippi;    Rept.  Internal  Commerce,  1887 
T W^H  tr'r'  f  J^^^^,^;^  ^^^  «"  the  National  Bank.     Chevalier, 
N^tlfnal^BaS.  '"""  '"'  ^^'  "'  ^"^'  ^^^^    ^^^^^  ^-d 

(13)   Compare  the  crisis  of  1857  with  those  of  1810  and  18^7  as 
to  cause    effect,  intensity,  duration.     Burton,   Crises;     Conant 

Newwl   r^^^^-'ii'^  Turner,   Rise  of 

New  West  Ch.  IX ;  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Ch.  XX;  Smith 
Parties  and  Slavery,  Ch.  XIII.  "^^au, 

Chapter  IX. 

(i)   Comparison  between  condition  of  slaves  and  wage  laborers. 
DeBow,  Southern  and  Western  States,  Vol.  H,  pp.  223-235     Olm 
STED  Cotton  Kingdom,  Vol.  II,  pp.  ^84-212,  236-271.   ^    ^^' 

(2)  Efforts  to  restrain  the  domestic  slave  trade.    Collins,  Ch. 
VII,  VIII;   Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Ch.  IX 

Co™f  ri'  V  '^'  ^'"Ir"-    Washington,  Story  of  the  Negro; 
COLLINS,  Ch.  V;  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Ch  VI 

(4)  Aims  and  methods  of  the  Abolitionists.    Hart.  Slavery  and 
Abohtion,  Ch.  XII,  Xin,  XIV,  XV.  XVI.  ^ 


Suggestions  to   Teachers 


425 


(s)  Evolution  in  the  ideals  of  wage-earners'  organizations.  Com- 
mons and  Sumner,  Labor  Movement,  1820-1840;  Commons,  Labor 
Movement,  1840-1860. 

(6)  Elements  that  went  to  the  making  of  the  Free  Soil  Democ- 
racy.   Smith,  Parties  and  Slavery,  Ch.  IV,  VI,  VII,  VIII,  IX. 

(7)  Significance  to  the  slave  interest  of  the  control  of  the  terri- 
tories.   Ingle,  Ch.  IX;  Brown,  Lower  South,  pp.  83-112. 

(8)  What  influence  had  the  tariff  controversy  in  provoking  the 
Civil  War?    Ballagh,  Tariff  and  Public  Lands,  pp.  221-263. 

(9)  Difficulties  of  the  Confederacy,  financial  and  economic. 
Schwab,  Confederate  States  of  America. 

(10)  Compare  the  national  banking  system  organized  in  1864 
with  the  first  National  Bank  as  to  integrity  and  elasticity  of  the 
currency.  Bolles,  Financial  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill, 
Bk.  I,  Ch.  XI;    Bk.  II,  Ch.  IV;    Conant,  Banks  of  Issue,  Ch.  XV. 

(11)  Compare  the  greenbacks  with  the  Continental  currency  as 
to  limits  on  issue  and  guarantee  of  redemption.  Bolles,  Vol.  Ill, 
Bk.  II,  Ch.  I,  II;  Bullock,  Monetary  History  of  the  United  States,' 
pp.  60-78. 

(12)  Influences  making  for  increase  of  customs  duties  during 
the  Civil  War.  The  industrial  effect  of  the  war  tariffs,  Taussig, 
Tariff  History,  pp.  155-193;   Stanwood,  Vol.  II,  pp.  126-138. 

(13)  New  influences  making  for  concentration  of  industry.  Myer, 
History  of  Great  American  Fortunes;  Youngman,  Causes  of  Great 
Fortunes. 

(14)  Cause  of  decline  of  our  merchant  marine  after  the  Civil  War. 
Marvin,  Ch.  IV;    Spears,  Story  of  American  Merchant  Marine. 

(15)  Account  for  contemporary  expansion  of  commerce  on  the 
Great  Lakes.  For  the  decline  of  river  commerce.  Rept.  Inland 
Waterways  Commission,  1908;  Rept.  Bureau  of  Corporations 
on  Transportation  by  Water  in  the  United  States,  1910;  Dixon, 
Tariff  History  of  Mississippi  River  System. 

(16)  Trace  the  evolution  of  the  Homestead  Act.  Compare  with 
the  head  right  as  to  effect  on  land  tenure.  What  was  the  effect 
on  wages?  Hart,  Disposition  of  Public  Lands;  Congressional 
Globe,  1849,  1850,  1854,  1861-1862. 

(17)  Compare  Whitney's  idea  of  a  transcontinental  railroad  with 
the  accomplished  fact.  Whitney,  Project  for  a  Railroad  to  the 
Pacific;  Davis,  Union  Pacific  Railroad;  Flint,  Railroads  of  United 
States. 

(18)  The  Grange  movement  as  a  preparation  for  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Act.  Rept.  Cullom  Committee,  1886;  Detrick, 
Effect  of  the  Granger  Acts ;   Martin,  Grange  Movement. 

(19)  Effect  of  emancipation  on  land  tenure.  Bank's  Land  Ten- 
ure in  Georgia,  pp.  30-116. 


-js; 


426      Industrial  History  of  the  United  States 

The  Labor  Problem  of  the  South,  Peasant  Agriculture.  Fleming, 
Industrial  System  in  Alabama ;  Dubois,  Negro  Farmer,  Negro  Land- 
owner; Kelsey,  Negro  Laborer;  Hammond,  Cotton  Culture,  Ch. 
IV,  V. 

(20)  Causes  of  the  industrial  revival  in  the  South.  Symjxisium, 
Am.  Econ.  Ass.  Pubs.,  1904;  Haet,  The  Southern  South. 

Chapter  X. 

(i)  Attitude  of  the  RepubUcan  and  Democratic  parties  in  the 
tariff  controversy.  Account  for  the  conversion  of  the  South  and  the 
Far  West,  for  the  protest  from  the  Middle  West.  Stan  wood, 
Tariff  Controversies,  Vol.  II,  Ch.  XV,  XVI,  XVII,  XVIII;  Willis, 
Tariff  of  1909. 

(2)  Compare  conditions  determining  the  tariff  legislation  of  1897 
and  1909.  Tariff  Hearings,  1897,  1909;  Wlllis,  Tariff  of  1909; 
Taussig,  Tariff  of  1909. 

(3)  Influence  of  business  combinations  on  tariff  legislation.  Bolen, 
Trusts  and  the  Tariff ;   Tarbell,  Tariff  in  Our  Own  Times. 

(4)  Contemporary  arguments  for  and  against  the  subsidizing  of 
steamship  lines.  McVey,  The  I  rye  Subsidy  Bill;  Sprincj,  Ship 
Subsidies;    Griffin,  References  on  Mercantile  Marine  Subsidies. 

(5)  History  of  the  bimetallic  standard  in  the  United  States. 
What  has  been  the  effect  of  the  alternating  standards  in  actual  use? 
The  economic  argument  underlying  the  free  silver  agitation  ?  Dewey, 
Financial  History  of  the  United  States;  Dewey,  National  Prob- 
lems, Ch.  XIV,  XX;  Laughlin,  Bimetallism;  Hepburn,  Contest 
for  Sound  Money. 

(6)  Account  for  the  rise  of  prices  from  1890  to  1909.  U.S.  Com- 
missioner OF  Labor,  Bulletins  51,  53,  59;  Laughlin,  Gold  and 
Prices;   Rept.  Mass.  Commission  on  the  Cost  of  Living,  1910. 

(7)  Is  our  currency  system  deficient  in  volume?  elasticity?  se- 
curity for  redemption  ?  Sprague,  Proposals  for  Strengthening  the 
National  Bank  System. 

(8)  Argument  for  and  against  a  central  bank.  Spkague, 
Central  Bank,  vs.  Warburg,  Central  Reserve  Bank  The  state 
guarantee  of  bank  deposits,  Webster,  Guarantee  Law  of  Oklahoma, 
vs.  Cooke,  Insurance  of  Bank  Deposits. 

(9)  Show  that  a  railway  corporation  is  a  legitimate  subject  for 
government  regulation.  Argument  for  Federal  rather  than  state 
control.  Myer,  Northern  Securities  Case;  Dewey,  National 
Problems,  Ch.  VI. 

(10)  Indicate  the  evolution  of  public  control  represented  in  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Act,  the  Esch  and  Hepburn  amendments,  and 
the  legislation  of  1910.  Ripley,  Railway  Problems;  Hadley, 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 


Suggestions  to  Teachers 


427 


(11)  Financial  and  political  dominance  of  the  great  business  com- 
binations Moody,  Truth  about  the  Trusts;  Youngman,  Economic 
Causes  of  Great  Fortunes. 

(12)  Is  the  animus- of  the  anti-trust  movement  with  the  laborer? 
the  consumer?  the  independent  producer?  Argument  for  Federal 
vT^'tTT/''",,^^'^^'^^  incorporation?  Jenks,  Trust  Problem,  Ch. 
XII  Xni;  Whitney,  Addystone  Pipe  Company;  Rept.  Bureau 
of  Corporations  on  the  Beef  Combination,  Standard  Oil  Company, 

(13)  Compare  the  crises  of  1873,  1884,  1893,  1907,  as  to  dominant 
cause,  severity,  and  mterests  especially  affected.  Sprague.  History 
of  Crises  under  the  National  Banking  System. 

(14)  Compare  the  Knights  of  Labor  with  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor  as  to  aims  and  organization.  Kirk,  Knights  of  Labor 
and  the  American  Federation;  Rept.  Industrial  Commission, 
Vol.  VII.  ' 

(15)  Tendencies  indicated  by  strike  statistics  as  to  chances  of 
success,  as  to  cost  to  employer,  employees,  community  concerned 
Repts.  U.S.  Commissioner  of  Labor,  1886,  1900,  1905.    Illustrate 
by  a  particular  strike.    Rept.  Com.  on  Anthracite  Coal  Strike  • 
Rept.  Com.  on  Chicago  Strike;   George,  Coal  Miners'  Strike. 

(16)  What  hope  of  peaceful  settlement  of  labor  disputes  offered 
by  the  employers'  association?  Andrews,  Developmefat  of  the 
Employers'  Association. 

(17)  Discuss  adequacy  of  the  present  restrictions  on  immigration. 
Hall,  Immigration;    Rept.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XV. 

(18)  Persistence  of  contract  labor,  peonage.  Advantages  and 
disadvantages  to  employer?  to  the  immigrant?  Coman,  Contract 
Labor  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands;  Rept.  of  Ford  Committee  on  Con- 
tract Labor ;  Italians  in  Chicago ;  Repts.  Commissioner  of  Immigra- 
tion.    Forthcoming  government  report  on  peonage. 

(19)  Economic  effects  of  immigration  for  American  industry,  for 
the  American  workman.  Industrial  Commission,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  293- 
743 ;    Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants. 

Special  studies  in  Immigration.  Coolidge,  Chinese  Immigration; 
Symposium  on  Asiatic  Immigration,  Annals  Am.  Acad.,  1909  •  Balch' 
Our  Slavic  Fellow  Citizens;  Lord,  The  Italian  in  America;  Bern- 
heimer,  Russian  Jew  in  America ;  Steiner,  On  the  Trail  of  the  Im- 
migrant; The  Immigrant  Tide;  Brandenburg,  Imported  Americans 


'\ 


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Whittelsey,  Sarah.  Labor  Legislation  in  Massachusetts.  An- 
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Wilhelm,  Lewis  W.  Local  Institutions  of  Maryland.  Johns 
Hopkins  University  Studies.     Third  Series,  311. 

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Winsor,  Justin.  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America. 
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Wright,  Carroll  D.  The  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron  and 
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Bibliography  ^^  j 

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I 

i 


4 


INDEX 


Addyston  Pipe  Company,  360. 
Adventurers,  24,  26,  27 ;   method  of 
securing  land,  in  Virginia,  32,  in 
Maryland,  37. 
Agriculture:  colonial.  48,  49.  S3,  54, 
50-63,  fostermg  legislation,   62-3  ; 
advantaged   by   foreign   markets, 
"8-9,  256,  257,  by  free  land  policy, 
119,  296-7,  306,  by  raikoad  con- 
struction, 251,  by  inventions,  149- 
50,  267-8,  by  fertilizers,   262,  by 
government  experiment    stations, 
395-6;    development,  184,  214-6, 
•     267-8,    Southern,    237-9,   309-12; 
antagonism  of  interest,  vs.  manu- 
factures,   142,    14s,    166,    255,   vs. 
shipping,    225,    332;    the  Grange 
Movement,  306-7,  337;    favored 
by  tanff  of  1883,  314.  3iS,  of  i8go, 
316-7,  of  i8q7,  319;    favored  by 
reciprocity  treaties,   317. 
Agriculture,  Department  of,  395-8. 
Agricultural   implements,    150,    237, 
261,  310,  328;    concentration  of 
mdustry,  355. 
Allegheny  Portage  Railroad,  218. 
Amalgamated    Association    of    Iron 

and  Steel  Workers,  358. 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  362-3 
American  Sugar  Refining  Company," 

317,  320,  359. 
"American  System,"  194-5,  255. 
Americus  Vespucius,  2. 
Anthracite  Coal  Syndicate,  358. 
Anti-Trust  Law,  Federal,  360 
Atchison,    Topeka,    and    Santa    F6 
Raikoad,  348,  351. 


Balboa,  4. 

Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  222 

223.  248,  3SI. 
Bankruptcies,  200,  201,  230-1.   267, 

303.  314-S,  339,  348-9. 


Banks:     national;      Bank    of    the 
United  States,  154,  155,   156,  2d 
national,  198,   199,  200,  201,  na- 
tional bank  system,  285-6,  341-2; 
state,   15s,   156,   ig8,   201,   201-2,' 
202-3,  285-6. 
Berlin  Decree,  176,  179. 
Beverley,  Robert,  69. 
"Bill  of  adventure,"  24. 
Bills  of  credit :  colonial.  85-7 ;  Con- 
tinental,   107-8,     108-9,     IIO-II, 
112,  depreciation.    108,    109,   no, 
III,  112 ;  issue  forbidden  to  states, 
132;    Confederate,   280;    Federal, 
285,  depreciation,  285,  redemption. 
285-6.  ^ 

Bindmg  Twine  Trust,  317. 
Black  Belt,  210,  240,  328,  351. 
Blaine,  James  G.,  316-7. 
Bland  Act,  336,  337. 
Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  63. 
66,87.90.  ^' 

Bonds:  Federal,  108,  155, 199,  284-5, 

341-2;   Confederate,  280. 
Boone,  Daniel,  125,  170. 
Boston,  5,  IS,  74,  78,  95,  103,  117, 

137,  211,  249. 
Boston  and  Albany  Raikoad,  240. 

351. 
Boycott,  366. 
Breweries,  53,  142,  193. 
Brisbane,  Albert,  277. 
Buchanan,  James,  295-6. 
Bureau  of  Corporations,  360. 
By-products,     utilization     of.     tigc. 
388-9.  "^^ 


Cabot,  John  and  Sebastian.  13. 
California :    ceded  to  U.  S.,  21 ;  dis- 

covery  of  gold,  245. 
Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  29,  32. 
Canals:  GaUatin's plan,  169-70,  220; 

Erie,   217-8;    Pennsylvania,   218- 
453 


1 


454 


Index 


Index 


455 


I   1 


\  \ 


Delaware  and  Raritan,  220;  Dela- 
ware and  Chesapeake,  220;  Miami, 
220;  Ohio,  220;  Dismal  Swamp, 
221 ;  Chesapeake  and  Ohio,  222 ; 
Welland,  226;  Sault  Ste.  Marie, 
226;  Des  Plaines,  226;  congres- 
sional aid,  220-1. 

Carey  Act,  402-3. 

Carolinas:  colonial,  30,  38,  60-1; 
North,  45,  100,  238;  South:  part 
in  Revolution,  95,  100,  loi,  102; 
attitude  toward  slavery,  44,  45, 
119-20;  cotton  culture,  183,  238, 
239-40 ;  cotton  manufactvires,  238- 
41,  311;  first  railroads,  222-3; 
nullification,   197;    secession,   279. 

Carder,  Jacques,  10,  22. 

Cattle,  46,  so,  61,  130,  156-7,  238, 

319. 

Chandlers,  143. 

Chartered  companies,  23-6. 

Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  222. 

Cheves,  Langdon,  200. 

Chicago,  217,  226,  303,  306,  321. 

Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy 
Railroad,  350. 

Chinese  immigration,  300,  362,  369- 
70. 

Clark,  George  Rogers,  127. 

Clark,  William  (see  Lewis  and  Clark). 

Clay,  Henry,  194,  271. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  315,  339. 

Clothing:  homespun,  49,  116;  ready 
made,  256,  260,  370. 

Coal :  anthracite,  187,  218  ;  bitumi- 
nous, 240,  259,  312;  statistics  of 
production,  241,  289;  protective 
duties,  145,  318. 

Coastal  plain,  16,  375. 

Collective  bargain,  365,  367-8. 

Collins  Line,  265. 

Colonists,  character  of,  12,  19,  38-9, 
58,  60,  61. 

Colonization  Society,  American,  271. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  2,  8;  Bar- 
tholomew, 2. 

Combinations  in  restraint  of  trade, 
359-60. 

Commerce:  colonial,  5-7,  24,  62,  63, 
76-7,  78-9,  coastwise,  76,  West 
India,  51,  62,  68,  77,  92-3,  94,  104, 
West  African,  78,  restrictive  legis- 


lation, 79,  82-s,  92-4;  Revolu- 
tionary War,  96-8,  99,  103,  113, 
114;  national  control  of ,  115,  133- 
4;  discriminating  duties,  135; 
commercial  treaties,  138-40;  War 
of  1 81 2,  139,  176-80;  retdprocity 
policy,  181-3;  effect  of  Walker 
tariff,  255-6,  258,  262;  effect  of 
repeal  of  Com  Laws,  255,  256; 
statistics  of,  134,  140,  181,  262-3, 
327-31;  chart,  64. 

Commerce,  coastwise,  242,  263,  265- 
6,  294,  330. 

Commerce,  Great  Lakes,  166,  226-7, 

294,  331- 
Commerce,  Oriental,  135,  137,  328, 

330 
Commerce,  transatlantic,  decline  of, 

283-4,  292-4. 
Commerce,  West  India,  114-5,  138. 

139.  140,  167,  193. 
"  Common  stock  "  in  the  first  coloniea^ 

25,  27,  28. 
Communistic  experiments    Owenite, 

275 ;    Fourier  associations,  277. 
Conditions  of  Plantations,  37. 
Congress,    Continental,    103-4,    io5» 

107-13,  120-2. 
Congress  of  the  Confederation,  115, 

158. 
Connecticut,  28, 35, 66,  70,  82, 86, 121. 
Conservation,  National  Commissiaa, 

407 -10. 
Copper,  7,  12,  289,  328. 
Corn,  Indian,  7,  20,  29,  39,  46,  49,  50, 

53,  54,  56,  77,  128-31,   193,   256, 

314,  316,  318,  340. 
Com  Laws,  77,  255,  256. 
Combury,  Lord,  66. 
Cornell,  Ezra,  252. 
Coronado,  10.  ^ 

Cortes,  8. 
Cotton,  37,  65,  77,  82,  151,  164,  183, 

186,  194,  19s,  207,  208,  209,  2IO-II, 

238-40,  256,  272,  328. 
Cotton  gin,  151,  241. 
Cotton  manufactures,  149-51,  184-6, 

195,  259,  287,  311,  314-6,  328,  3S& 
Coxe,  Tench,  152,  186,  189. 
Crises.     See  financial  crises. 
Cuba,  89,  317,  330. 
Cumberland  Gap,  124. 


Cumberland  Road,  167,  203. 

Currency:  specie;  colonial,  46-7, 
65.  93,  131,  foreign  coins,  154,  sup- 
ply, 154-6,  198-200,  257,  267,  280, 
284-5,  303,  315,  336-7,  the  Specie 
Circular,  229,  statistics  of,  335, 
336-7,  legislation  of  1702,  154,  ef 
1S34,  228,  of  1853,  335,  of  1873, 
335-6,  of  1878,  337,  of  i8qo,  337, 
of  iQOo,  340-1 ;  bank  notes,  1st 
national,  154, 155, 156,  2d  national, 
198-9,  state  banks,  198,  201,  202, 
228-9,  231,  267,  285-6,  statistics  of , 
198,  201,  267,  the  Specie  Circular, 
229,  present  national  bank  system, 
284-5,  341-2,  circulation,  341-3; 
statistics  of,  198,  200,  202,  231,  285- 

6,  336-7,  340-1  • 
Cutler,  Dr.  Manasseh,  158. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  25,  32,  56. 

Dallas,  Secretary,  report  on  tariff  re- 
vision, 191. 

D'Ayllon,  9. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  105, 
121-2. 

Declaratory  Act,  98,  105. 

Delaware,  Lord,  25. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  395-6. 

Desert  Land  Act,  402. 

Dingley  Tariff,  319-22. 

Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  221. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  295. 

Drainage  of  swamp  lands,  404-5. 

Drake,  Sir  Frauds,  14. 

Dry  farming,  405-7. 

Eastward  Route,  2. 

Embargo  Act,  177,  178-9. 

Employers,  liability  of,  391. 

Employers'  Associations,  367-8. 

Erickson,  Leif,  5. 

Ericsson,  226. 

Erie  Canal,  217-8. 

Esch  Law,  391. 

Exhaustion  of  mineral  resources, 
384-6. 

Exploitation  of  natural  resources, 
375-81. 

Exports:  colonial,  51,  53,  57,  58,  59, 
60,  61,  62,  63,  66,  77,  104;  statis- 
tics of,  104,  140,  178, 183,  256,  259, 


290,  321, 330;  charts,  64,  loi,  257, 
329- 

Fall  Line,  17,  240,  311,  351. 

Fertilizers,  50,  58,  262,  310,  312. 

Financial  crises:  of  1810,  200-1,  of 
1837,  228-31,  of  1839,  231,  of  1857, 
266-7,  of  1873,  301-4,  of  1884,  314- 
5,  348,  of  1893,  339;  chart,  302. 

Fisheries:  colonial,  20,  29,  39,  51,  93, 
114;  Grand  Banks,  138,  183; 
bounties,  242 ;  relative  decline,  330. 

Fitch,  John,  149-50. 

Flax,  49,  60,  6s,  94,  196,  258,  316. 

Florida,  9,  21,  231,  312. 

Forestry  service,  398-400. 

Forests,  waste  of,  378-81 ;  reforesta- 
tion, 399-400. 

France:  colonies  in  America,  10,  12, 
13,  20,  77 ;  commercial  treaty  with 
the  U.  S.,  138-40. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  98,  108,  138. 

Free  Soil  party,  278,  294. 

Freedman's  Bureau,  308. 

Fremont,  J.  C,  247,  279. 

Fruits:  culture,  50,  53,  54,  59,  61, 
237,  312  ;  duties  on,  78,  99,  319. 

Frye,  William  P.,  331,  m- 

Fvir  trade:  colonial,  12,  18,  20,  29, 
SI,  S2,,  61,  64,  76-7;  farther  de- 
velopment in  the  West,  124,  246, 
247. 

Gage,  L3rman,  341. 

Gallatin,  Albert :  on  importance  of 
national  bank,  156;  report  on 
manufactures,  188-9;  free  trade 
memorial,  197 ;  plan  for  internal 
improvements,  169,  220. 

Georgia,  16,  31,  38,  45,  loi,  121,  122, 
183. 

Gilbert,  Ralegh,  26. 

Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  14. 

Glass,  26,  99,  143,  256,  287,  316. 

Gold:  discoveries;  Hispaniola,  8, 
southern  Appalachians,  228,  Cali- 
fornia, 24s,  Nevada,  289-90, 
Alaska,  341 ;  coinage,  legislation 
of  1792,  154,  of  1834,  228,  of  1900, 
340,  supply,  154,  28s,  289,  290, 
315.  335.  336-7,  341;  exhaustion 
of,  386. 


456 


Index 


Index 


457 


A 


Gold  Coast,  1 8,  44,  78,  120. 

Gomez,  9.  , 

Gorges,  Sir  Fernando,  28,  29,  40. 

Gorges,  Robert,  40. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  15. 

Gould  railway  system,  351. 

Government  debt :  Revolutionary 
War,  III ;   Civil  War,  285. 

Grange  Movement,  307. 

Gray,  Captain  Robert,  171. 

Great  Bridge,  74. 

Great  Britain:  colonial  policy; 
claims  to  the  New  World,  13,  14, 
15,  character  of  plantations,  14,  16, 
conquest  of  Dutch  and  Swedish 
colonies,  19,  encourages  agricul- 
ture, 62,  discourages  manufac- 
tures, 63,  66,  68,  72-3,  restricts 
colonial  trade,  79,  82-5,  levies 
revenue  duties,  92,  94,  95-6,  at- 
tempts to  vindicate  imperial  au- 
thority, 98-9 ;  commercial  relations 
with  the  U.  S.,  114-5,  139,  i7S-9, 
189-91,  256. 

Great  Deed  of  Grant,  38. 

Great  Northern  Railroad,  349,  350. 

Great  Southern  Railway,  225. 

Great  Valley  of  Virginia,  58,  59,  123. 

Greeley,  Horace,  277,  294. 

Greenbacks,  285 ;  depreciation,  285 ; 
redemption,   286,  suspended,  286. 

Grenville,  Lord,  90,  95. 

Griscom,  C.  A.,  333. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  14,  22,  23. 
Hamilton,    Alexander:     report    on 

manufactures,     146-8 ;     ciurency 

recommendations,  154-6. 
Harriman,  E.  H.,  349,  350. 
Harriman  railway  system,  350. 
Hat  manufacture,  68,  143,  189,  190. 
Hawaiian  Islands,  328,  330,  331. 
Hawkins,  Sir  John,  13,  22. 
Hazard,  Rowland,  187. 
Head  right,  33,  38. 
Health,  National  Department  of,  393. 
Hemp,  60,  62,  94,  X30,  162,  194,  196, 

256,  257,  316. 
Hides,  46,  49,  67,  68,  83,  130,  146, 

316,  319- 
HiU.  J.  J.,  350. 
Holland,  17,  18,  19. 


Homestead  Law:  unsuccessful  bill, 
294-7;  Act  of  1862,  296-7;  in- 
fluence on  speculation,  30J. 

Howe,  Elias,  260. 

Hudson,  Henry,  18. 

Hudson  River,  5,  15,  18,  76,  208. 

Hussey,  Obed,  261. 

Illinois  Central  Railroad,  250. 

Immigration :  statistics,  i840-'6o, 
232-3.  i86o-'yo,  2g6-j,  1870-IP03, 
368-70 ;  industrial  efficiency,  292, 
370;  attracted  by  public  land», 
296-7 ;  change  in  character,  368-9 ; 
distribution,  369;  Chinese,  300, 
362,  370,  372, 373 ;  German,  19,  54, 
157,  234,  292,  369;  Irish,  43,  59, 
157.  234,  292,  300,  369;  Italian, 
19.  369;  Japanese,  374;  Scandi- 
navian, 292,  369 ;  restrictive  legis- 
lation, 371. 

Import  duties,  colonial,  82-3,  84,  90, 
92,  94,  99,  loi.  (See  tariflf  legis- 
lation.) 

Imports:  colonial,  65,  77,  79,  82-3, 
94,  96,  100,  103;  statistics,  loi, 
104,  141,  189-90,  208,  258^-9,  283, 
320-1 ;   charts,  loi,  257,  302,  329. 

Impressment  of  American  seamen, 
I7S-6,  179,  181. 

Indentured  servants:  terms  of  con- 
tract. 42,  43,  44;  advantages  of 
system,  44,  45,  46,  54,  57 

Indians,  7,  8, 18,  20, 40,  4I1  5i.  53,  56, 
72,   76-7,   123,   125-7,   158. 

Indigo,  61,  63,  82,  115,  118,  144,  197. 

Injimction,  366. 

Inland  Waterways  Commission,  407. 

Inman  Line,  332,  333. 

Internal  improvements,  166,  167-8, 
169-70,  208,  216-25,  298-300. 

Internal  revenue  taxes,  284,  287,  288, 

313,  318. 
International      Mercantile      Marine 

Company,  333-4- 
Interstate   Commerce  Commission, 

353-4- 
Interstate  conmierce  law,  353 
Iron:   colonial,  7,  23,  26,  69-72,  73, 
83 ;    new  resources,  188,  241,  289, 
312 ;  development  of  manufactxires, 
1 16-18, 187-8,320;  protective  leg- 


islation, 143,  190,  192,  195.  196, 
256,  258,  287,  293,  314,  316,  318, 
320;  exportation  of,  328;  exhaus- 
tion, 384. 
Irrigation,  210-11,  246,  248,  355»40if 
403,  405-7- 

Jackson,  Andrew,  229,  277. 

Jamestown,  15,  25,  71. 

Jay,  John  :  seeks  loan  in  Spain,  108 ; 
on  continental  currency,  no;  on 
commerce,  113;  negotiates  treaty 
with  Great  Britain,  139. 

Jefferson,  Thomas :  on  Southern  cot- 
ton manufactures,  118,  119;  agi- 
tates abolition  of  feudal  land 
tenure,  119;  on  slave  trade,  122; 
authorizes  exploration  of  Louisiana 
Territory,  171 ;  recommends  Em- 
bargo, 177;  on  slavery,  269;  in- 
fluence of  doctrines,  274. 

Jenks,  Joseph,  70. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  295. 

Joliet,  II. 

Kentucky,  125-6,  127,  157,  162,  201, 

205,  230-1. 
King,  Butler,  265. 
Knight,  Madame,  47,  74. 
Knights  of  Labor,  361-2. 

Labor:  colonial,  33,  41-5;  slave  vs. 
free,  211,  234,  240,  272-4,  278; 
organization,  276-7,  278,  304-6, 
361-2,  366;  protective  legislation, 
305-6,  360,  390-1 ;  bureaus  of 
statistics,  305-6,  361-2;  contract 
labor,  361, 371 ;  convict  labor,  361 ; 
of  women  and  children,  390. 

Laconia  Grant,  29. 

Land  tenure,  25,  27,  28,  32-3.  33-5» 
35-6,  36-7,  38,  54,  57,  59,  60,  61, 
119,  128. 

La  Salle,  12. 

La  Vcrendrye,  12. 

Law  Line,  265. 

Leather  manufacture,  67-8,  77,  131, 
144,  189,  241,  256,  260. 

Leland  Line,  333. 

Leonard  Brothers,  70. 

Lewis  (Meriwether)  and  Clark  (Wil- 
liam), 12, 172. 


Liberty  party,  278. 

Livingston  Manor,  36. 

Locofoco  party,  277. 

London  Company,  23,  24,  26,  32,  39, 

41,  42. 
Long  hunters,  127,  156-7. 
Louisiana,  193,  194,  312,  317. 
Louisiana  Territory,  12,  170-1,  172, 

382. 
Lowell,  Francis  C,  185,  192. 

Madison,  James,  139,  270. 

Magellan,  Ferdinand,  2,  9. 

Manufactory,  American,  118. 

Manufactory  House,  117. 

Manufactures :  colonial,  63-73, 96-7 ; 
national  development,  116-8,  140- 
I,  184-9,  1 90-1,  200,  207,  208,  239- 
40,  290-2,  30X,  315.  320,  340; 
Southern,  240-1,  311-12;  textile 
machinery,  152-3,  260-1 ;  cotton 
manufactures,  184-6,  258^-9,  328; 
woolen  manufactures,  186-7 ;  iron, 
187-8;  Hamilton's  report,  146-8; 
Gallatin's  report,  188-9;  Dallas's 
report,   19 1-2. 

Marcos,  Fray,  9. 

Maryland,  29,  loi,  119,  189,  250, 
270. 

Mason,  John,  29. 

Massachusetts,  115,  122,  189,  195, 
249,  250,  305. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  27,  28, 
35,  63,  64,  65,  66,  68,  70,  73.  74, 
76-7,  82,  83,  84,  8s,  86.  87,  88,  105. 

McCormick,  Cyrus  H.,  261. 

McKinley,  William,  316,  319,  340. 

McKinley  Act.  315,  316-7,  318-20. 

Meats,  dressed,  50,  77,  92,  94,  114, 
328;     concentration   of    industry, 

355- 
Merino  Society  of  the  Middle  States, 

i86. 
Miami  Company,  160,  162,  165. 
Michigan  Central  Railroad,  225,  249, 

267,  350. 
Milan  Decree,  177,  179. 
Mines,  Biu-eau  of,  391-2. 
Mississippi    River,   6,   12,   115,   139, 

166-7,  171. 
Mississippi  Valley,  20,  171,  201,  215- 

6,  218. 


458 


Index 


Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  250,  351. 
Mohawk  Valley,  7,  36,  216,  217,  223. 
Molasses,  78  83,  84-5,  92-3,  99,  104, 

146,  189,  193,  196,  256. 
Molasses  Act,  84-5. 
Morgan,  J.  P.,  333,  349,  350. 
Mormons,  246. 
Morton,  Thomas,  40. 
Mutiny  Act,  99. 

Nails,  71,  143,  188. 

Narvaez,  9. 

National  Labor  Union,  305. 

Naval  stores,  23,  26,  60,  61,  64,  80, 

81,  83,  IIS,  137. 139,  328. 
Navigation  Acts:    British,  81,  114; 

American,  133-5,  137. 
Negro:    as  laborer,  308-9,  311;    as 

peasant  farmer,  370. 
Nemacolin's  path,  123,  167. 
Newell,  F  H.,  407. 
New  England,  15,  20, 33-5,  36,  50,  51, 

52,  6s,  67,  68,  70-1,  74,  77,  78,  82, 

84,  100,  120-1,  122,  143,  14s,  19s, 

197-8,  249,  314. 
New  England  Association  of  Farm- 
ers, Mechanics,  and  other  Work- 

ingmen,  276. 
New  Hampshire,  35,  86,  87. 
New  Harmony,  27s. 
New  Jersey,  30,  37,  44,  54,  71,  115, 

118,  359- 
New  Orleans,  12,  166,  208,  212,  230. 
Newport,  76,  78. 
Newport,  Captain,  2s,  26,  39. 
New  York  Central  Raih-oad,  223,  350. 
New  York  City,   18,   117,  208,  230, 

267,  276,  303,  314. 
New  York,  colony  and  state,  30,  36, 

SZ,  70-1.  82,  86,  95,  96,  100,  116, 

122,  189,  193,  198,  248. 
Nicollet,  II. 

Nonintercourse,  96-7,  100,  179,  243. 
North,   The,    122,    208,     243,    267, 

274-9. 

Northern  Pacific  Raihroad,  303,  349, 

350. 
Northern  Securities  Company,  350, 

360. 
Northwest  Passage,  4,  9,  10,  18. 
Northwest  Territory,  157,  158,  160- 

«.  213-4. 


Ocean  Steamship  Line,  265. 

Oceanic  Steamship  Company,  33a. 

Oglethorpe,  16,  31. 

Ohio  Company,  160,  162. 

Ohio  River,  12,   123-4,    J6s-6,    188, 

212-3. 
Olmsted,  F.  L.,  273-4. 
Orders  in  Council,  114,  176,  189. 
Ordinance  of  1787,  iS7-6a. 
Oregon,  246,  247-8,  330. 
Oregon  Trail,  247. 
Owen,  Robert,  27s. 

Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Line,  264-5, 

Panama,  Isthmus  of,  4,  6,  at. 

Panama  Canal,  394-s. 

Paper  manufactures,  143,  189,  256. 

Pasturage,  381-3,  399. 

Patent  law,  148. 

Patrons  of  Industry,  307. 

Patroons,  18. 

Penn,  William,  31,  36.    • 

Pennsylvania,  30,  31,  36,  44,  S4.  66, 
82,  86,  loo-i,  116,  122.  143,  188, 
189,  217-8,  248-9. 

Pennsylvania  railroad  system,  349, 
351.  391- 

Petroleum,  290-1. 

Philadelphia,  31,  96,  118,  142,  143, 
230. 

Philippine  Islands,  4,  330. 

Phosphate,  386. 

Picket mg,  365. 

Piedmont  District,  17,  s8-u  62,  iao» 

105,  146. 
Pike,  Z.  M.,  172. 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  27,  39. 
Pinchot,  Gifford,  407. 
Pineda,  9. 

Pine-tree  shillings,  46. 
Pitt,  William,  92,  96,  97,  99,  103. 
Plate  Glass  Combination,  358. 
Platte  River,  10,  246. 
Plymouth  Colony,  is,  27,  35-6,  77. 
Plymouth  Company,  24,  26,  27. 
Ponce  de  Leon,  9. 
Pony  Express,  252. 
Poor  whites,  236,  309,  311. 
Popham,  George,  26. 
Popham,  Lord  John,  26. 
Population:    statistics,   16,   19,  44, 


Index 


459 


126,  162,  232-6,  214,  247-8,  292, 

297,  368r-9;    charts,  si,  136,  232, 

233.  234,  23s,  281,  369. 
Port  Royal,  10,  22. 
Porter,  Peter  Buell,  216. 
Porto  Rico,  330. 
Power  loom,  185. 
Preemption  act,  165. 
Price  conventions,  112,  283. 
Prices,  46-7,  111-2,  166,  201,  230-1, 

282-3,  284-s,  318,  320-1;    chart, 

364- 
Prindpio  Iron  Works,  72,  116. 
Privateering,    89,    105,    113,    136-7, 

138-40,  180. 
Proprietary  colonies,  28-31,  36-8. 
Providence  Plantations,  28. 
Public  lands,  122, 157-62,  164-5,  200, 

203,  220-1,  214,  250,  278,  294-7, 

302-3,   355,   402,   407-10;    chart, 

302, 
Pure  Food  Law,  392-3. 

Quarantine  regulations,  392. 
Quitrents,  35,  36,  37,  38,  119. 

Railroads:  construction,  222-5,  248- 
9.  297-301, 340, 347-52,  chart,  302 ; 
combination,  348-51 ;  government 
control,  250-1,  300,  307,  352-4; 
government  aid,  250-1,  299-300; 
statistics,  249-51,  347,  348;  specu- 
lation, 301-2,  348;  freight  rates, 
250,  347 ;  charters,  352. 

Railroad  lands,  250,  299,  300. 

Ralegh,  Sir  Walter,  14,  15,  28. 

Randolph,  John,  270. 

Raw  materials,  62-3,  65,  78-9,  83, 
94,  241,  256,  258,  313,  316-7,  318, 
328,  357-8. 

Reclamation  Act,  403. 

Rennslaervyck,  36. 

Rhode  Island,  35,  70,  86,  87,  96,  116, 
194- 

Ribault,  Jean,  22. 

Rice,  37,  46,  60,  80,  83,  94,  119,  238, 
312. 

Richmond  and  Danville  Railroad, 
347.  349- 

Roads,  wagon,  73,  74,  76,  168-9, 
203,  216-7,  248. 

Robertson,  John,  126. 


Roosevelt,  Theodore,  392,  407,  408, 

410,  412. 
Royal  African  Company,  44,  78,  119. 
Rum,  S3,  76,  77,  78,  84,  92,  137,  146, 

193,  197- 

Sagadahoc,  26. 

St.  Lawrence  River,  5,  6,  10,  22,  53, 
89,  166. 

St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  and  Manitoba 
Railroad,  351. 

Salem,  15,  35,  84,  137,  262. 

Salt,  29,  51,  80,  83,  117, 131, 145, 192- 
3,  197,  256,  287,  288,  357. 

Salt  Lake  Trail,  246,  252,  299. 

Sault  Ste.  Marie,  226. 

Scholfield  Brothers,  187,  190. 

Screw  projjeller,  226. 

Sewing  machine,  260-1,  328. 

Sheep,  399.     See  Wool. 

Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act,  36a 

Sherman  Silver  Act,  337,  339. 

Shipbioilding :  colonial,  50,  62, 81,  82 ; 
foreign  sales,  262-3,  293 ;  duties  on 
raw  materials,  145,  196,  260,  293 ; 
steamships,  149,  213,  225,  226, 
264-6. 

Shipping:  tonnage  statistics,  134, 
135,  179,  181,  262,  293,  294,  330-1 ; 
reciprocity,  181-3 ;  repeal  of  Brit- 
ish Navigation  Acts,  263 ;  eflfects  of 
war,  of  1812,  179-80,  of  Crimean, 
264,  of  Civil,  292-4 ;  transatiantic 
packet  lines,  182;  Yankee  clippers, 
263 ;  competition  of  English  steam- 
ers, 263-4;  decline  of,  331 ;  charts, 

^  257,  329. 

Silver:  supply,  7,  9,  22,  46,  93,  154, 
289,  290,  335-9 ;  legislation,  154-6, 
228,  335-9 ;  value  in  gold,  154,  202, 
336,  338,  339;  agitation  for  free 
coinage,  335,  336,  337-95  coinage, 
335,  33^7,  339;  exhaustion,  386. 
Slater,  Samuel,  152-3. 

Slavery :  colonial,  18, 43-5,  54, 57.  59, 
60,  61-2,  69,  78 ;  agitation  against, 
119-22,  133, 160, 162,  269-71,  278- 
9;  industrial  eflSdency  of  ^ves, 
2IO-II,  236,  240,  248,  272-4; 
statistics,  210,  211,  214. 
Smith,  Captain  John,  ao,  25,  39. 
Smith,  Joseph,  151, 187. 


460 


Index 


Index 


Smuggling,  83-4,  85,  167,  211. 

Soils,  50,  S3,  54,  60,  61,  128,  130,  164, 
210,  246,  262,  397. 

South,  The,  68,  82,  100,  118,  119, 
iso-i,  183,  186,  194,  196-7,  198, 
221,  228,  233,  234,  235,  236,  237, 
238,  241-2,  26s,  279-80,  307-11, 

South  Carolina  Railroad,  223. 

Southern  Railway,  349,  352, 

South  Sea,  4. 

Southwest  Territory,  162,  164. 

Spain,  8-9,  20,  21,  138-9. 

Spinning  mule,  152-3,  240-1,  259, 
311- 

Spotswood,  Grovernor,  59,  72. 

Stamp  Act,  95,  96,  97-8. 

Standard  Oil  Company,  291,  355, 
357.  359,  360. 

Standish,  Miles,  27,  40. 

State  railway  commissions,  352-3. 

Steel,  116,  142,  289,  314,  316,  318, 
320,  329,  340. 

Strikes :  Amalgamated  Association 
of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers,  358; 
United  Mine  Workers,  358;  Mis- 
souri Pacific,  362  ;  Pullman,  366  ; 
statistics,  363-4 ;  sympathetic,  366. 

Subsidies,  steamships:  ante-bellum, 
264-6;  Postal  Aid  L^w,  331 ;  Frye, 
Subsidy  Bill,  332. 

Sugar,  78,  83,  84,  92,  93,  104,  131, 
193,  256,  317,  318,  320,  397. 

Sugar  Act,  92,  93,  94,  99. 

Swamp  lands,  404-5. 

Sweden:  settlements,  19;  commer- 
cial treaty  with  United  States,  138. 

Symmes,  J.  C,  160,  165, 

Tariff  Legislation:  a  Federal  func- 
tion, 1 16, 132-3 ;  acts  of  178Q,  142- 
6, 17Q2,  I7Q5,  148,  1812,  179,  1816, 
191-3,  1824,  194-S,  1828,  I9S-6, 
1832,  197,  1833,  197,  254-5,  1842, 
2S4-5,  1846,  256-8,  1857,  258, 
1861,  283-4,  1862,  287,  1864,  287, 
1872,  1875,  288,  1883,  313-4,  1800, 
316-7,  1 8 04,  318-9,  1897,  319-20, 
JQOQ,  322-7 ;  reports  of  Hamilton. 
146-8,  of  Dallas,  191,  of  Walker. 
255-6;  of  Commission  of  1882, 
313-4,  of  Cleveland,  315. 


461 


Taxes:  Federal,  107,  108, 132,  283-4, 

286,  287-8,  313,  318;  Confederate, 

280. 
Tea,  99,  102,  103,  135,  I37,  »56,  283, 

288,  317. 
Telegraph,  251-2, 
Tennessee,  127,  157. 
Texas,  21,  239,  312. 
Textile  machinery,  152-3,  260-1. 
Timber,  16,  23,  26,  29,  50,  53,  54,  60, 

61,  62,  77,  78,  83,  92,  137,  294,  318, 

319;  exhaustion,  3  7  8-8 1 . 
Timber  Culture  Act,  398. 
Tin  Plate  Combination,  320,  357. 
Tobacco,  20,  37,  47,  56-8,  61 ,  77,  79, 

83,  84,  119,  130,  157,  162,  189,  197, 

238,  256,  316,  318,  328. 
Townshend,  Charles,  90,  99. 
Townshend  Act,  99,  102. 
Treasury,    National:     surplus.    221, 

231,   258,  316;    deficit,   23 J,  283, 

318. 
Treaties:    boundary,  36,   180.    248; 

commercial,    138-40,    175 ;     reci- 
procity, 181-3,  317. 
Trusts:   development,  317,  320,  355, 

357,  .558-9;  legislation,  350~6o. 

Union  label,  367. 

Union     Pacific    Railway,     297-301, 

348-9- 
Union  shop,  366-7. 
United  Mine  Workers  of  America, 

358. 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,  358, 

391,  409. 
Utah,  246. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  277,  279. 
Vanderbilt  railway  system,  350-1. 
Verrazano,  10,  22. 
Virginia,  15,  32-3,  42-3,  56-9,  62,  72, 

76,  82,  loi,  103,  119, 120,  12J,  128, 

189,  191,  269-70. 

Wages    41, 49,  53, 141,  i6s,  255,  263, 

267,  304,  308-9,  314,  318,    361; 

chart,  364. 
Walker,  R.  J. :  annual  report,  1845, 

255;    Walker  Tariff,  256;   annual 

report,  1846,  256,  257. 
Wampum,  47. 


Ward  Line,  332. 

Washington,  George,  122;  on  west- 
em  speculation,  157;  on  need  of 
communication  with  West,  167-8; 
on  slavery,  269;  on  need  of  agri- 
cultural department,  395. 

Washington,  state  of,  248. 

Waste :  of  natural  resources,  375-86 ; 
of  human  life,  386-8;  utihzation 
of,  in  manufacture,  388-9. 

Watauga  Colony,  59,  126,  127. 

Water  power,  410-12. 

Water  scrip  agreement,  412. 

Wealth  statistics,  232,  292,  354-5. 

West  India  Company,  18,  36,  44, 

Weston,  Thomas,  40. 

Westward  route,  214. 

Whale  fisheries,  51,  52,  53,  64,  78,  83, 
94,  115- 

Wheat,  47,  sz,  54,  61,  77,  78,  94,  256, 


314.  3iSi  316,  318,  328,  340,  383-4* 

395. 
Whiskey  Trust,  358,  359- 
White,  John,  41. 
Whitman,  Marcus,  246-7. 
Whitney,  Asa,  297-8. 
Whitney,  Eli,  150. 
Wildcat  banks,  198,  201. 
Wilderness  Road,  126. 
Wilson  Act,  318-9. 
Winthrop,  John,  Jr.,  70. 
Wool,  49,  54,  59,  65.  68,  79,  80,  97, 

117,  186-7,  189-90,  195,  196,  197, 

256,  258,  287,  316,  318,  319. 
Woolen  manufactures,  65-6,  77,  78, 

80,  117,  131,  186-7,  189,  191,  192, 

194.  195,  196,  246,  256,  257,  258, 

260,  287,  314,  316,  318. 
Workingmen's  Party,  276,  305,  361. 
Wyeth,  Nathaniel  J.,  246. 


An  Introduction  to  the  Social 


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labor  of  women  and  children  to  industrial  progress  ;  of  organization  in 
business  and  its  tendencies;  of  the  growth  and  functions  of  large  cor- 
porations ;  of  public  ownership ;  of  the  various  experiments  which 
have  been  tried  at  different  times,  or  the  programmes  which  social 
leaders  are  now  proposing  for  the  remedy  or  the  prevention  of  economic 
injustice. 

Questions  are  listed  at  the  end  of  each  chapter  and  aid  the  reader  in 
the  application  of  the  preceding  discussion  to  current  affairs.  The 
whole  tone  of  the  book  is  stimulating  and  practical. 


f| 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

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This  book  is  due  on  the  date  indicated  below,  or  at  the 
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provided  by  the  library  rules  or  by  special  arrangement  with 
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DATE  SUE 


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FEB  a  8  1995 


'^SKllIllil'lSpT^'-IBRARIES 


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END  OF 
TITLE 


